Conrad Black convicted of fraud

Lord Black of Crossharbour was found guilty of three counts of fraud and one of obstruction by a jury at the Dirksen Federal Courthouse in Chicago, Illinois.

Black was accused with other Hollinger International executives of stealing 60 million dollars (£30 million) from the company's shareholders. Prosecutors alleged that that they behaved like bank robbers secretly swindling the shareholders out of their money.

After the verdicts were delivered to a packed courtroom, prosecutor Eric Sussman called for him to be jailed, declaring that "very conservatively" Black was looking at a sentence of 15 to 20 years.

The panel finally delivered verdicts on the 62-year-old former Daily Telegraph owner and once-powerful chief executive of the Hollinger newspaper empire on the 12th day of deliberations. Black, who launched an immediate appeal, was convicted of three counts of fraud but cleared of a further six. The nine women and three men on the jury also cleared him of charges of racketeering and tax evasion.

The jury had to consider 42 counts against Black and his three co-defendants in a highly complex trial. They had heard the prosecution allege that the 60 million dollars mainly came from the sale of hundreds of Hollinger-owned US and Canadian regional newspapers between 1998 and 2001, in which the buyers paid large sums in return for agreements that Hollinger would not compete with the new owners.

Black, of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, faced nine counts of mail and wire fraud, two counts of tax evasion and one count each of racketeering and obstruction of justice. The billionaire was accused, amongst other things, of cheating Hollinger International by taking the company plane on a holiday to Bora Bora in French Polynesia and billing shareholders 40,000 dollars (£20,000) for his wife's surprise birthday party. He was cleared of the charges relating to these allegations.

Black was convicted of mail fraud - fraud involving the postal service - but cleared of wire fraud - fraud involving any form electronic communication. He could face a maximum sentence of five years for each fraud count and 20 years for obstruction of justice, as well as a huge fine.

Black's three co-defendants were all found guilty of three counts of mail fraud. They are former Hollinger International vice presidents John Boultbee, 64, of Vancouver, and Peter Atkinson, 60, of Toronto, and attorney Mark Kipnis, 59, of Chicago.

Meanwhile, the Conservative Party announced it was withdrawing the whip from Black, who has sat in the House of Lords as a member of the Tories, after his fraud conviction. In a statement, the Tories said: "In the light of this verdict the Conservative whip will be withdrawn from Lord Black."