Barbara Amiel, the columnist wife of the newspaper tycoon Lord Black of Crossharbour, jeopardised the resale of his former corporate apartment on Park Avenue in New York by stripping it even of the chandeliers, court papers reveal.

Lord Black’s purchase of the flat from his company for an allegedly below-market price of $3 million (£1.5 million) in 2000 forms the basis for one of the fraud charges against him at his criminal trial in Chicago.

The resale for $10.5 million five years later has spawned a separate civil lawsuit in New York, where Sotheby’s International Realty is suing for its $537,000 commission, which was seized by the Government.

Court papers revealed an occasionally acrimonious transaction between the former Telegraph chairman and the buyers – Martin and Phyllis Berman – that almost foundered over the chandeliers.

Patricia Patterson, Lord Black’s broker at Sotheby’s, said in a deposition that she was surprised to find that the five chandeliers in the flat had been removed by Lady Black.

“I wasn’t aware that the apartment had been emptied until I went there, and I was surprised to see how much had been taken out, some of which should have remained,” she said. “I called Lord Black. I did not, frankly, want to speak to her. She is the one who took them.” Ms Patterson also got asking prices from Lord and Lady Black for missing items.

Serena Boardman, the Sotheby’s broker who represented the Bermans, said: “The dollar amounts were very large. We did not proceed with any of those acquisitions.” The row over the chandeliers led to the closing date being pushed back.

Lord Black, facing growing legal troubles, became incensed and left angry telephone messages for Ms Patterson. “Conrad Black had left her some messages yelling and screaming about the fact that these people were trying to back out of the sale, etc . . .” Ms Boardman said. “He was screaming and yelling, saying, ‘I’m not going to sell it to them’.” The court papers do not make clear how the row was resolved, but suggest that the Bermans never secured the chandeliers.

As soon as the deal closed, the Government seized the proceeds, including Sotheby’s commission. Lord Black, who has sold his double-fronted house in Kensington, West London, but still owns mansions in Palm Beach, Florida, and his native Toronto, is accused of swindling shareholders in his original purchase of the Park Avenue flat.

The newspaper group bought the second-floor apartment at 635 Park Avenue for $3 million in 1994. Lord Black used it while in New York even though there was a limit to the number of days he could spend in the US for tax reasons.

In 1998 he paid $499,000 to buy a flat on the ground floor for his servants. The suspect transaction took place in 2000 when Lord Black bought the second-floor flat for an unchanged $3 million and sold the company the servants’ flat for $850,000 – 70 per cent more than the purchase price.

Times Recommends

• Mandela’s tribe threatens President Zuma
• The French empire strikes back
• Wife of cheating governor exacts a political revenge