Jury selection begins Wednesday in Chicago in a fraud trial which has all the trappings of past corporate scandals with betrayal and a bit of quasi-espionage thrown in for added spice.

There is a videotape of Black loading 13 boxes of documents into his chauffeur-driven car after the US Securities and Exchange Commission notified him that his dealings were under investigation.

There are the accusations that Black used company funds to pay for his wife's birthday party, handbags, exercise equipment, opera tickets, a vacation in Bora Bora and the refurbishment of a Rolls Royce.

There is the long-time friend and associate, former chief financial officer and Chicago Sun-Times chief David Radler, who turned government snitch in exchange for a 29-month jail sentence and a 250,000-dollar fine.

While the dollar value of the alleged fraud is relatively small -- Black and his associates are accused of helping themselves to more than 80 million dollars, a pittance compared to the billions lost when fraud caused the collapse of energy giant Enron -- the trial will be closely watched because of the buzz surrounding Black.

The son of a wealthy brewery executive, Black's massive media empire once spanned the globe and included such prestigious titles as the London Daily Telegraph, Jerusalem Post and Chicago Sun Times along with hundreds of regional papers.

Black's willingness to flaunt his wealth and privilege, his conservative views and his buccaneer business acumen alienated his more self-effacing fellow Canadians long before he renounced his citizenship in order to become a British Lord in 2000.

His troubles began after Hollinger International, the US-based holding company which controlled the empire, began divesting its Canadian and US publications.

Black and his associates wrote non-compete clauses into the sales agreements which granted them massive tax-free bonuses while protecting the new owners from having Hollinger launch new publications to compete with the ones it had just sold.

Shareholders began to complain about the bonuses in 2002 as Hollinger posted massive losses but Black remained defiant, telling one shareholder to sell his shares and "get out" if he had a problem with the way things were being run.