Lord Black told a group of potential investors with concerns about perks such as Hollinger International’s corporate jet that he could “have a 747 if [he] wanted”, his former head of investor relations testified on Tuesday.

The exchange, recounted by Paul Healy, was one of numerous examples of Lord Black’s bellicose management style aired in his fraud trial on Tuesday, including e-mails referring to an “epidemic of shareholder idiocy” about payments to Hollinger executives.