Sun-Times wins approval for $37.5 million settlement

Sun-Times Media Group Inc., the newspaper publisher once led by Conrad Black as Hollinger International Inc., won court approval for a $37.5 million settlement of a shareholder securities-fraud lawsuit.

U.S. District Judge David H. Coar in Chicago today gave final approval to the accord first submitted to the court in 2007. The settlement resolves claims that Black and other executives misled investors about their compensation.

"It's an excellent result for the class given the fact that three of the corporate defendants declared bankruptcy," plaintiffs' lawyer John Kairis said after the hearing. "There was a serious risk of no recovery at all."

Sun-Times, based in Chicago, filed for Chapter 11 protection in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Delaware, on March 31, listing assets of $479 million and debt of $801 million.

Under Black, who was Hollinger's chairman and chief executive officer, the company was once the third-largest publisher of English-language newspapers including the Chicago Sun-Times, Canada's National Post, the Jerusalem Post and the U.K.'s Daily Telegraph.

The case is In re Hollinger International Securities Litigation, 04cv834, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division (Chicago).