'A BANK ROBBER IN A SUIT AND TIE' ; the Case against Conrad Black ++ the Prosecution Launched a Blistering Attack on the Former 'Telegraph' Owner as His Trial on Charges of Racketeering and Fraud Got under Way. Stephen Foley Reports from Chicago

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Lord Black of Crossharbour - the former proprietor of The Daily Telegraph, business titan and peer of the realm - plundered his media empire of $60m ([pound]31m) in a theft no more complex than a bank robbery or a burglary, according to a blistering opening argument by prosecutors.

As the curtain went up on the Trial of Conrad Black, his accusers sought to bring dozens of financial deals and dodgy expenses down to a single point: Hollinger International was not Lord Black's personal piggy bank, Hollinger's money was not his money.

"You are sitting in a room," the prosecutor, Jeffrey Cramer, told the jury, "with four men who stole $60m [[pound]31m], four men …