Black's stay appeal denied by court

A federal appeals court on Friday denied former media mogul Conrad Black's emergency request to remain free on bond while appealing his 6ˆ½-year sentence for swindling his company's shareholders.

But the court still could allow Black to remain free on bond rather than force him to start his sentence on his March 3 surrender date.

The appeals judges in effect told Black that there was no need for an emergency decision on his request and there was still plenty of time to mull the issue of whether he should get a so-called appeal bond.

"The court anticipates a ruling on the application for continued release shortly after receiving the government's response," they said.

That suggested the final decision could be coming any time, since the government already filed its response to the request Wednesday.

Black was acquitted of most of the charges against him.

But he was convicted July 13 along with two executives of their former company, Hollinger International Inc., of three counts of fraud. They allegedly siphoned off millions of dollars that should have gone to shareholders and attempted to disguise them as "non-compete" payments.

In the publishing business, such payments are sometimes made to the sellers of newspapers in exchange for a promise not to return to the same circulation area to compete with the new owners for a specified time.

Prosecutors said any proceeds from such payments belonged to the shareholders and should not have gone into the pockets of the executives.

The Canadian-born Black was also convicted of obstruction of justice for hauling boxes of business documents out of his Toronto office.

On Dec. 10, U.S. District Judge Amy J. St. Eve sentenced Black to 78 months, John Boultbee to 27 months and Peter Y. Atkinson to 24 months.

The three executives had argued that an emergency delay in the surrender date was needed because it was possible that they would go to prison only to receive appeal bonds later and be released, causing needless work for the Bureau of Prisons and hardship for the three men.

Hollinger International Inc. was once one of the world's biggest newspaper holding companies. Its properties included The Daily Telegraph of London, the Chicago Sun-Times and The Jerusalem Post as well as hundreds of community newspapers across the United States and Canada.

All the big papers except the Sun-Times have now been sold and the company that emerged changed its name to Sun-Times Media Group.