Conrad Black

Conrad Black was convicted in July of three counts of fraud and a single count of obstruction of justice. He was sentenced last month to six and a half years in prison, where he is to report March 3.Conrad Black's lead appeal lawyer expects to file an application with the U.S. District Court in Illinois shortly seeking to secure the former press baron's freedom until his appeal of fraud and obstruction convictions is heard.
"We will be filing an application with Judge (Amy) St. Eve for bail pending appeal within the next week," said Andrew Frey, an appeals lawyer at Mayer Brown LLP in New York, on Wednesday.
But Black is expected to argue for continuation of bail instead, on the strength of the legal merit of his appeal.
"We will focus principally on additional issues that pertain only to Black, such as the obstruction conviction," said Frey. "Ours will be something of a 'rump' application, because some of the common issues have already been covered in the applications filed by (Black's co-defendants Peter) Atkinson and (Jack) Boultbee, which we will adopt."
The obstruction conviction, which stemmed from Black's removal of 13 boxes from his former Toronto office in 2005, "is extremely vulnerable," said Frey.
It was "utterly unreasonable to conclude that Mr. Black acted with obstructive intent, which is an indispensable element of the offence," he said. "I don't want in any way to denigrate the strength of our arguments on the fraud counts, (but) it seems to me our prospects of success are especially strong on obstruction."
During Black's four-month trial, his lawyers argued that he was simply taking personal items from the office after he was evicted by new managers. Prosecutors said he removed the boxes because he was aware he was being investigated by U.S. authorities probing activities at his former company, Chicago-based Hollinger International Inc.
The criminal fraud charges filed in late 2005 were connected to payments from newspaper sales that went to executives instead of Hollinger International.
Black's co-defendants, Atkinson and Boultbee, who were also convicted of three fraud charges, have argued for bail pending appeal based on the argument that the judge may have erred by giving the jury the so-called "ostrich" instruction. This, they argue, allowed jurors to convict when there was a lack of evidence the accused were wilfully blind to suspect financial transactions at the core of the case.
Black, who gave up his Canadian citizenship in 2001 to accept a seat in Britain's House of Lords, has been ordered to remain in the U.S. since his conviction.