CHICAGO (Reuters) - Conrad Black is just as guilty of a multimillion dollar theft, and of lying about it, as his one-time business partner who already admitted guilt, prosecutors told jurors in final arguments yesterday at the former media baron's criminal fraud trial."These guys were on the same page. They did it together," prosecutor Julie Ruder said, referring to Black and long-time partner David Radler, the government's star witness against him and three co-defendants.

"Conrad Black was just as committed to lying about this scheme as David Radler," she told the jury of 11 women and four men who may begin deliberations in the case next week.

"Mr. Radler took responsibility for these awful events. They did this together," she said, trying to drive home a key prosecution strategy putting Black and Radler in lock-step in a scheme the government says defrauded Hollinger International Inc. and its shareholders out of $60 million.

Radler was Black's partner turned government informer who pleaded guilty to one count of fraud in a deal that will send him to jail. He was the prosecution's main witness in the trial.

"We are not here because somebody made mistakes. We are not here because somebody didn't disclose something in a timely fashion," Ruder said as the trial entered its 14th week.

"We are here because five men — these four defendants and David Radler — systematically stole $60 million. They checked their fiduciary duty at the door," she said.

"Conrad Black fancied himself a proprietor. No sackcloth and ashes for him," she said of the flamboyant 62-year-old Canadian-born Black who is now a member of Britain's House of Lords.

Black and three other former Hollinger executives are accused of pilfering $60 million in so-called non-competition payments that prosecutors contend rightfully belonged to the publishing giant and its shareholders.

The payments compensated Black and the others for agreeing not to compete against the buyers of hundreds of publications that were being sold to pay accumulated debt. Prosecutors contend they were essentially turned into non-taxed bonuses which the defendants awarded to themselves.

Lawyers for Black and the others have tried to show that non-compete agreements are a common business practice, and were properly disclosed to Hollinger International's auditors and approved by its high-profile board of directors.

But Ruder, repeatedly ridiculing defence contentions by saying, "It's ridiculous," took the jury on a tour of the non-compete agreements at issue.

In one case, she said, "Conrad Black is paying himself not to compete with himself." In another, the businessman who paid $14 million for a number of newspapers including the Jamestown, North Dakota, Sun "cared less" if Black and the others signed such agreements because he knew they were not about to open another newspaper in Jamestown, population 10,000, she said.

Such payments do not raise a "red flag, so it makes it easy for people like this," she said pointing toward the defendants, "who know how it works. ... This is the cover story. The buyers couldn't have cared less."

Black is charged with mail fraud, wire fraud, obstruction of justice, racketeering and filing false tax returns. If convicted, he could face decades in prison and forfeiture of millions of dollars.

Black and former chief financial officer Jack Boultbee, 63, also face charges they abused company perks by allowing Black to use a company jet on a South Seas vacation, to buy a luxury New York condominium owned by the company, and to use company funds to defray the cost of a surprise birthday party for Black's wife at an upscale New York restaurant.

Boultbee and co-defendants Peter Atkinson and Mark Kipnis, both lawyers for the company, face lesser charges.

Hollinger was one of the world's largest publishers before Black and the others began disposing of its properties. The company has since been renamed the Sun-Times Media Group Inc.