Black asks court to overturn conviction

His Lordship is seeking redress after the U.S. Supreme Court set aside his honest-services convictions in June.

Conrad Black’s lawyers are in Chicago today asking a U.S. Court of Appeals to throw out his fraud and obstruction of justice convictions. The Supreme Court ruled this summer that prosecutors had erred in charging him with honest-services offences, and Black’s lawyers are arguing that this taints the entire case. Black, the former newspaper magnate who renounced his Canadian citizenship in 2001 so that he could become a British lord, was convicted in 2007 of diverting funds from his company for personal use and obstructing justice by removing documents from his office while under investigation. He served 28 months in jail but is now out on bail in Palm Beach and isn’t expected to attend the hearing.