Ex-media tycoon Black to return to jail on September 6

CHICAGO (Reuters) – Former media mogul Conrad Black has been ordered to report to prison on September 6 to serve out his prison sentence for fraud and obstruction of justice, according to US court documents filed yesterday.

Conrad Black

A US judge last month re-sentenced the 66-year-old member of Britain’s House of Lords to another 13 months in prison on top of the 29 months he had already served in connection with his 2007 conviction.

A federal jury found Black guilty of scheming with partner David Radler and other executives to siphon off millions of dollars in proceeds from the sales of newspapers as they unwound Hollinger International, once the world’s third-largest publisher of English-language newspapers.

It operated the Chicago Sun-Times, the Jerusalem Post, London’s Daily Telegraph and dozens of other newspapers across North America.

The Canada-born Black was released from prison a year ago while his case was under appeal, which resulted in two of his three fraud convictions being vacated and a shortening of his original 78-month sentence.

He is expected to serve out his time at the Coleman Federal Correctional Complex near Orlando, Florida, where he was held previously.

Black, a British citizen, will face deportation from the United States after his release. That could come earlier than the remaining 13 months in his sentence based on time off for good behavior.

Some $5.5 million confiscated by federal authorities in 2005 from the sale of Black’s New York luxury apartment has been returned to him.

The money was intended to pay restitution for the fraudulent bonuses Black and other Hollinger executives paid themselves from the sale of newspapers.

Black also intends to bring out an “unflinchingly revealing” memoir in October, A Matter of Principle, which will be published by McClelland & Stewart.