Appeals court upholds Conrad Black’s conviction

Former media tycoon Conrad Black’s fraud conviction was upheld today on appeal.

A three-judge panel of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously affirmed the convictions of Black and three other former Hollinger International executives who were found guilty by a jury last summer of defrauding the newspaper company out of millions of dollars. Hollinger International is now called Sun-Times Media Group.

Black, 63, is now serving a 6œ-year prison sentence in Florida.

Appellate Judge Richard A. Posner wrote that the defendants caused the company to make false filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and did so for “private gain.”

Posner rejected the defense argument that the jury was improperly given the “ostrich instruction” — which holds that a jury can find a defendant guilty for intentionally avoiding knowing the truth about criminal behavior.

“If you receive a check in the mail for $1 million that you have no reason to think you’re entitled to, you cannot just deposit it and when prosecuted for theft say you didn’t know you weren’t entitled to the money,” Posner wrote.

Posner also dismissed Black’s argument that he did not intend to destroy or hide any evidence when he removed 13 boxes of documents from his offices in Toronto. The removal was caught on office surveillance cameras and shown to the jury.

Posner noted that there was evidence Black tried to avoid the building’s security cameras — “unsuccessfully.”

Today’s ruling came just 20 days after the case was argued before the appeals judges.

Patrick J. Fitzgerald, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, said the office is “pleased” that the Chicago-based court “swiftly and conclusively” affirmed the guilty verdicts.

“The court found clear evidence that all four defendants engaged in a brazen, multimillion dollar corporate fraud scheme and deprived the public shareholders of Hollinger International of their right to the executives’ honest services,” Fitzgerald said in a statement.

Black’s defense attorney, Andrew Frey, said the decision was “very disappointing.”

“We are carefully studying our options as to what we can do to get things straightened out,” said Frey. Black could still try appealing to the entire 7th Circuit Court and the U.S. Supreme Court.

Besides Black, the 7th Circuit panel upheld the convictions of former Hollinger executives Peter Y. Atkinson and John A. Boultbee of Canada and Mark S. Kipnis of Northbrook.