Former media baron Conrad Black and his wife Barbara Amiel Black have been put on an allowance by an Ontario Superior Court order that froze the couple's assets world-wide.

According to a report in the Chicago Sun-Times, a person familiar with the order said the court set the couple's monthly spending money at $20,000.

Black, who used to control both Toronto-based Hollinger Inc. and Chicago-based Hollinger International Inc., owned the Chicago Sun-Times through a controlling share of Hollinger International Inc.

Hollinger International Inc. recently changed its name to Sun-Times Media, and remains the publisher of the Chicago Sun-Times.

A shareholder revolt in 2003 resulted in Black losing control over his Hollinger International Inc. shares and in 2005 prosecutors charged him with racketeering, money laundering, wire fraud and obstruction of justice.

He has entered a not-guilty plea and is scheduled to stand trial in March 2007.

Judge Colin Campbell of the Ontario Superior Court issued the freeze of his assets with what is called a Mareva order.

The order was in response to a request from Toronto-based Hollinger Inc., which launched a $700-million U.S. lawsuit against Black and other Hollinger Inc. executives in July.

The executives, along with Black, face charges that they skimmed $84 million from company coffers during the transfer of several newspapers from Toronto-based Hollinger Inc. to Chicago-based Hollinger International Inc., during the time Black was chairman and chief executive officer of Hollinger Inc.

Black was in control of both companies at the time of the transfers. The Chicago Sun-Times reported that Black declined to comment and his lawyer could not be reached for comment.

A spokesman for Hollinger Inc. could not be reached.

With files from The Associated Press and The Canadian Press