Conrad Black's attorneys tell appeals court his trial wasn't fair

Lawyers for jailed former newspaper mogul Conrad Black appealed his case, saying federal prosecutors failed to prove he tried to hide key documents and disputing the fairness of jury instructions.

"This is the weakest case I've seen in 45 years of law practice," Black defense lawyer Andrew Frey told the three judges from the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday.

The judges pushed back, with U.S. Appellate Court Judge Richard A. Posner asking Frey about how the defense described an arrangement by which Black, the 63-year-old British baron known as Lord Black of Crossharbour, and two other defendants received $5.5 million.

"You're saying it's management fees recharacterized as non-competition fees for Canadian tax purposes," Posner said. "It can't be both."

Black is serving a 6 1/2-year prison sentence for swindling shareholders of the former Hollinger International media empire. A federal court jury acquitted Black on nine of the charges against him at the four-month trial that ended last July but convicted him of three fraud counts and one obstruction count.

Black was accused of siphoning off millions of dollars belonging to Hollinger shareholders through what were billed as non-compete payments from buyers of community newspapers owned by the company, which is now called Sun-Times Media Group.

Jurors convicted Black of obstruction of justice after seeing a videotape of the newspaper mogul hauling boxes of documents out of the Toronto office and loading them into his car.

Prosecutors said he was trying to hide evidence of financial wrongdoing from Securities and Exchange Commission investigators.

But Frey said the prosecution did not show Black intended to destroy or conceal any documents.

Posner called Black's timing for removing the documents "bizarre."

The defense also said that U.S. District Judge Amy J. St. Eve did not give fair instructions to the jury.

Lead prosecutor Eric Sussman said Thursday he was confident the panel, which included appellate judges Michael S. Kanne and Diane S. Sykes, would agree with the judge and the jury and uphold the convictions.

The judges could make a decision in a month to six weeks, Frey said.