CHICAGO, July 20 (Reuters) - The federal judge who sentenced Conrad Black to 6-1/2 years in prison will set the terms of the former media mogul's release on bond on Wednesday morning, the judge's clerk said on Tuesday.
Monday’s ruling by an appeals court panel ordered the lower court judge, Amy St. Eve, to release Black from a Florida prison pending his appeal of his 2007 conviction on fraud and obstruction of justice.
The Canadian-born Black, a British peer who once led the world’s third-largest newspaper publisher with titles including the London Daily Telegraph, Canada’s National Post and the Chicago Sun-Times, entered a Florida prison in March 2008.
Black, 65, was given a 6-1/2-year sentence on three counts of fraud and one count of obstruction of justice for swindling defunct media holding company Hollinger International Inc out of $6.1 million.
Black and three colleagues were convicted in a scheme where they paid themselves tax-free bonuses disguised as non-compete fees as they sold off pieces of the Hollinger empire.
Last month, Black won a victory when the high court limited the reach of the federal fraud law that prosecutors frequently used in corruption cases against government officials and executives like Black and former Enron Corp. Chief Executive Jeffrey Skilling.
It, however, stopped short of overturning their convictions, and sent the cases back to lower courts.
Black’s attorneys appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals in the 7th Circuit, and a three-judge panel agreed he should be granted bond. The appeals court had previously turned down Black’s appeals that jury instructions applying the "honest services" law were improper.
The federal law is applied to fraud cases in which a person is accused of depriving others of the intangible right to "honest services." It has been criticized as being too vague and overused.
