US Supreme Court to review Conrad Black's conviction

The Telegraph ^ | 5/18/2009 | Alex Spillius

[bruinbirdman]

The US Supreme Court agreed yesterday to consider overturning the fraud conviction Conrad Black, the former owner of The Daily Telegraph, who is serving a 6 1/2 year sentence for fraud and obstruction of justice.

The court's justices will hear arguments later this year over the convictions of Black, the former chairman and chief executive of Hollinger International, and two other former executives in connection with payments of $5.5 million (£3.6m) they received from a Hollinger subsidiary.

The men argued that they did not commit fraud because they did no harm to the company. They turned to the highest US court after the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago upheld their convictions.

Black, 64, and former executives John Boultbee and Mark Kipnis argue that the $5.5 million actually represented management fees that the subsidiary owed to the executives.

The Canadian-born Black, who became Lord Black of Crossharbour in 2001, has so far served more than a year of his sentence in Coleman, Florida.

He had asked President George W Bush for a pardon before Bush left office in January.

Apart from the Telegraph titles, Hollinger once owned the Chicago Sun-Times, the Jerusalem Post and hundreds of community papers across the US and Canada.