Conrad Black Fails in Bid to Delay Jail Term

An American appeals court has rejected a last-ditch application by Conrad Black for a delay in the start of his prison sentence, leaving the disgraced press baron with no option but to report to jail on Monday.

In a blow to the former Telegraph owner, three appeals judges said Black had failed to raise any substantial issues of doubt over two of his four criminal convictions.

The ruling means Black, 63, has run out of legal avenues. He is required to present himself by 2pm on Monday to a prison, likely to be a low-security institution near his beachside mansion in Florida, to begin his six and a half year sentence.

"Defendant Black must report to prison on or before March 3, as required by the district court's order," said the ruling by a trio of judges led by chief justice Frank Easterbrook on America's seventh circuit court of appeals.

Black's appeal lawyer, Andrew Frey, said he was "surprised and disappointed" by the decision. Frey said he had spoken to the fallen media mogul, who was doing "as well as can be expected under the circumstances".

Black and three former colleagues from his Hollinger media empire â€" Jack Boultbee, Peter Atkinson and Mark Kipnis â€" were convicted of fraud by a Chicago jury in July.

They were found guilty of plundering $6.1m through phony "non-compete" clauses attached to the sale of newspaper businesses.

The appeals court judges allowed Boultbee and Atkinson to stay out pending a full appeal, saying they had raised substantive issues on two counts of fraud, with the issue resting on a technical legal definition surrounding shareholders' "intangible rights" to honest services from directors.

But they said none of the defendants had been able to cast any doubt over a third fraud conviction and, in the case of Black, on an obstruction of justice count.

The obstruction conviction carries the stiffest sentence of all, of 78 months. It concerns an incident in which Black was captured on closed circuit video footage removing 13 boxes of documents from his Toronto office in breach of a court order requiring all business records to be left untouched.

Black has maintained a bombastic attitude of defiance throughout the case. He told the Canadian broadcaster CBC in December that jail would be "a bore" yet "quite endurable". He claims to have found solace in God, reading the words of ecclesiastical authors such as Cardinal Newman.

For the past few months, Black has laid low at his Palm Beach mansion, venturing out for cycle rides and for gourmet meals at upscale local restaurants. At a recent lunch with a reporter from the Toronto Star, the peer ordered a "duo of veal" and a roasted beet salad.

At the height of his career, Black was one of the world's most powerful press barons with a portfolio of more than 200 newspapers including the Chicago Sun-Times and the Jerusalem Post, as well as Britain's Daily and Sunday Telegraph.

Black's former right-hand man, David Radler, entered prison in Pennsylvania this week to begin a 29-month sentence - lightened because he pleaded guilty and gave evidence against his former colleagues. He is likely to apply for a transfer to a jail with a more relaxed regime in his native Canada.

For Black, a cross-border transfer is not an option because he renounced his Canadian citizenship in 2001 in order to become a member of the House of Lords. He remains a life peer, although he was stripped of the Conservative whip by David Cameron following his conviction. Once he has completed his sentence, the American authorities may choose to deport Black to Britain.