Lady Black's birthday party: $42,870

Conrad Black and his wife, Barbara Amiel Black, used Hollinger International as a "piggy bank" to fund their lavish lifestyle, according to the report filed in federal court Monday.

On one occasion, the company plunked down $42,870 for a "Happy Birthday, Barbara" dinner party at New York's La Grenouille restaurant. Some 80 guests attended the $212-a-plate gala, including Oscar de la Renta, Peter Jennings, Charlie Rose and Barbara Walters. The meal included beluga caviar, lobster ceviche and 69 bottles of wine.

Black had parlayed his ownership of London's Daily Telegraph into a seat in Britain's House of Lords. His wife, a conservative journalist, made no secret of her taste for high living. According to the report, she charged food, cell phones, perfume, tips and "other routine living expenses" to Hollinger International.

Among the Blacks' charges were $2,463 for handbags, $140 for jogging attire, $2,083 for exercise equipment, $2,057 for a briefcase, $2,785 for opera tickets, $828 for stereo equipment, $3,530 for silverware for the Blacks' corporate jet, $24,950 for "summer drinks," and $90,000 to refurbish a Rolls-Royce.

The company also leased a Gulfstream IV jet for the Blacks at a cost of $3 million to $4 million a year.

The Blacks arranged to swap apartments on New York's Park Avenue with Hollinger International in a deal highly favorable to them. The Blacks got Hollinger's apartment for a $2.5 million discount, while the appreciation on their apartment was "rigged," according to the report. The apartment they traded to Hollinger often housed their "personal domestic staff" and friends visiting New York.

Barbara Amiel Black also drew a salary from Hollinger International for holding the post of vice president, editorial, of Hollinger International. Since 1999, she took in more than $1.3 million in salary, directors fees, bonuses and payments for columns written for Hollinger papers. The report describes her duties as "nothing more than euphemisms for ordinary activities such as reading the newspaper, having lunch, and chatting with her husband about current events."

Black charged some expenses directly to the Chicago Sun-Times. From 1997 through mid-2003, the Sun-Times paid $572,757 for Conrad Black's New York housekeeper and chauffeur, for example.

But Black was not the only insider to get his personal expenses covered. Hollinger International bought former Sun-Times Publisher David Radler an apartment in Chicago for $890,000 in 1994. The company also bought him two cars for more than $56,000.

Radler's daughter Melissa worked as a reporter in New York for Hollinger's Jerusalem Post. At Radler's insistence, the paper nearly doubled her salary, from $38,000 to $62,000. The company may also have paid her New York rent and moving expenses, according to the report.

Rona Radler, David Radler's wife, received $126,000 for serving as chair of the Chicago Sun-Times Charitable Trust, the document says.