A US judge has denied fallen press lord Conrad Black's long-shot request to remain free on bond pending appeal of his fraud and obstruction of justice conviction.
Black, 63, was convicted in July of illegally siphoning $US6 million ($6.7 million) out of the Hollinger International newspaper empire under the pretence that they were so-called non-compete payments from buyers of the company's assets.
The former chief executive officer of Hollinger International was also convicted of spiriting boxes of documents out of his offices in Toronto, Canada to keep them out of the hands of investigators.
District Judge Amy St Eve said in her order on Thursday that Black's lawyers failed to show his grounds for appeal were likely to result in a reversal or a new trial.
Black has until March 3 to report to prison and begin his 6½-year sentence.
Hollinger International was once one of the world's largest newspaper holding companies. Its papers included London's Daily Telegraph, the Chicago Sun-Times and The Jerusalem Post as well as hundreds of small community papers across the United States and Canada. During the 1990s the group was the largest shareholder of Fairfax newspapers, publisher of The Sydney Morning Herald.
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