US: Hollinger International, the media company at the centre of a widening scandal over payments to its former chief executive, Mr Conrad Black, made substantial investments in three companies in which outside director Mr Richard Perle had an interest, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The report comes just days after Mr Perle was cleared by an internal Defence Department inquiry into conflict of interest allegations concerning another company which prompted him to step down in March as chairman of an influential Pentagon advisory board.
Based in Chicago, Hollinger, which owns the Telegraph Group, the Chicago Sun Times and the Jerusalem Post, invested $2.5 million in a venture-capital firm which was co-managed by Mr Perle, the Journal reported.
It also invested $14 million in a British technology company in which Mr Perle is a shareholder and gave $200,000 a year to the National Interest, a conservative publication which includes Mr Perle and Lord Black as advisers.
The payments raise new questions about the independence of the board of Hollinger, which shareholders allege stood by while the company made unauthorised payments of $32.5 million to Lord Black and other executives.
Lord Black resigned as c.e.o. of Hollinger last month but remains on as chairman and majority shareholder. The US Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating the company and an internal inquiry is looking at related party transactions.
According to the internal investigators, the independent directors of the board did not approve the $32.5 million in payments, which included a $15.6 million payment to Lord Black.
However a March 2003 SEC filing said the $15.6 million payment was authorised by the board. This was not disputed at the time by the board members, whose role is to monitor company transactions.
Mr Perle is one of the leading neo-conservative strategists in the US. He resigned in March as chairman of the Pentagon's Defence Policy Board after a controversy surrounding his consulting work for Global Crossings. It was alleged that he had been hired by the bankrupt telecommunications firm to win the Pentagon's approval of the sale of Global to Hutchinson Whampoa, a Hong Kong firm with ties to China.