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Federal appeals court declines to reconsider Conrad Black appeal

By Jaclyn Belczyk

[JURIST] The US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit [official website] on Friday declined to reconsider the appeal of Canadian-born media mogul Conrad Black [CBC profile; JURIST news archive]. In October, a three-judge panel upheld two [opinion, PDF; JURIST report] of Black's four convictions, one for fraud and one for obstruction of justice. The court held that the other two fraud charges must be dismissed after the US Supreme Court upheld the "honest service" doctrine [18 USC § 1346 text] and ruled that it applied [JURIST report] to Black's case. On Friday, the court declined Black's request for an en banc rehearing to reconsider the two charges that were affirmed.

Black originally faced 17 counts of fraud, obstruction of justice, racketeering and tax evasion. He was accused [indictment, PDF] by the US government of diverting more than $80 million from Hollinger International and its shareholders [JURIST report] during Hollinger's $2.1 billion sale of several hundred Canadian newspapers. In July 2007, Black was convicted of mail fraud and obstruction of justice and sentenced to 78 months in prison. The court of appeals initially rejected Black's appeal, holding that § 1346 may be applied in a private setting regardless of whether the defendant's conduct risked any foreseeable economic harm to the victim. The Supreme Court granted certiorari last year to determine the scope of the "honest services" clause, and held that Black had properly objected to the jury instructions at trial concerning the honest service doctrine and remanded the case to the circuit court for an opinion consistent with the judgment in Skilling v. United States [JURIST report]. Black is also currently facing charges before the US Tax Court for failure to pay nearly $71 million in taxes [Bloomberg report]. He denies being obligated to pay the taxes because he is not a US citizen.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on December 17, 2010 (boomark / email).