[LINK] "‘No alternative’ but to fight to clear his name: Conrad Black"

[rfmcdonald]

MacLean's reports on convicted fraudster Conrad Black's continued efforts to clear his name, this time in Ontario.

Conrad Black told Canada’s largest securities regulator Friday that he’s had “no alternative” but to fight to clear his name of allegations and U.S. criminal convictions that he considers illegitimate.

It was the first time that the former Hollinger executive has been able to testify and defend himself publicly before the Ontario Securities Commission, which oversees Canada’s largest stock market and many of its publicly traded companies.

The provincial regulator is considering whether Black and former Hollinger chief financial officer John Boultbee should be banned from acting as directors, officers or registrants of public companies following two U.S. criminal convictions.

The OSC process has been sidelined for nearly a decade as Black faced numerous fraud-related charges in the U.S. and ultimately served time in prison for two of them. Boultbee was convicted of one count of fraud in the U.S.

Black has previously been a director of several major companies, including CIBC, and was both an officer and director of several of the companies within the Hollinger newspaper group that he also controlled as a major shareholder.

But he told the OSC panel Friday at a hearing that he has no plans to hold that type of position again within Ontario’s jurisdiction, which includes most publicly traded companies on Canada’s largest stock exchange.