KEY POINTS:
Fallen media tycoon Conrad Black faces not only the loss of his freedom but also his substantial personal wealth after a jury found him guilty at the weekend of fraud and obstructing justice.
Even as his lawyer, Edward Greenspan, said he would be launching an immediate appeal and
was confident there were "viable legal issues" against the verdicts, analysts were speculating about how much, if any, of his assets the former owner of the London-based Telegraph newspaper group will be left with.
He has already sold his New York apartment and another of his homes, in Florida, is on the market. Greenspan's services alone have presented Black with a US$4 million ($5.09 million) bill while estimates for the total defence costs - Black employed a "dream team" of top criminal lawyers - vary from US$25 million to US$70 million.
Forfeiture of assets is most often used in racketeering cases. But although Black was cleared of that, the most serious charge of the 13 he faced in the indictment, the fraud convictions that he and three co-defendants diverted US$60 million from their company, Hollinger International, are sufficient to support a raid on assets, investigators have confirmed.
Black has clung to defiance and denial for as long as he could against the onslaught of United States investigators and public opinion.
In a Canadian radio interview, Greenspan said his client remained as unbowed as ever by the guilty verdicts.
"He's making plans for an appeal and he's making plans to vindicate himself," he said.
Greenspan virtually begged the court not to take his client to the cells. He succeeded - and Canadian-born Black was allowed to remain free on a US$21 million bond, despite being found guilty on three charges of fraud and one of obstructing justice.
He was cleared of eight other fraud charges and one of racketeering. Within hours of the guilty verdicts being handed down, as Black sat sullen before a pragmatic mid-western jury, he was stripped of the whip in the House of Lords in London by the Conservative leader, David Cameron. But there are no plans to strip him of his peerage.
The prosecution is seeking forfeiture of up to £50 million ($130 million) in assets from Black and wants to seize his £17.5 million mansion in Palm Beach, Florida, and the £4 million in proceeds from the sale of his Park Avenue apartment in New York, which are already frozen.
It emerged at the weekend that Black's legal team had been making representations to the court, well before he was convicted, to transfer him to Canada to serve his sentence. But as he is no longer a Canadian, and British citizens convicted in the US invariably serve their sentences there, he is unlikely to succeed.
"He will be in an orange jumpsuit," prosecutor Eric Sussman said after the case was over, referring to the uniforms typically issued to US convicts.
As a foreign national and a fraudster likely to receive a hefty sentence, Black will not serve his term in the equivalent of an open prison but a minimum- or medium-security federal institution.
He faces another battle not to be remanded into custody this Thursday.
Sentencing is set for November and he will not be eligible for parole until he has served 85 per cent of his sentence.
Patrick Fitzgerald, US attorney for the Chicago area, has "conservatively estimated" Black will be sent to prison for between 15 and 20 years - this is disputed by Greenspan.
"The sentencing guidelines take very seriously a situation where millions of dollars are stolen by fraud," Fitzgerald said at the courthouse after the verdicts had been given.
Behind him stood his stable of four young prosecutors and a hand-picked team of FBI agents and tax investigators who "followed the paper trail" and also asked the crucial questions about why more than US$60 million was being siphoned off from newspaper sales straight into the personal pockets of the defendants.
Black spent the harshest days of the three-month trial being trashed by the Government's star witness, David Radler, the business partner of 30 years who had helped Black build his empire from scratch, then folded for a plea bargain - 29 months in a Canadian jail.
His most humiliating moment came when he was forced to take out his British passport and hand it over to the custody of the court, which believed he was desperate enough to become a fugitive.
As the verdicts were handed down, Black employed great self-control to remain impassive.
The charges
* Conrad Black has been found guilty on three charges of fraud and one of obstructing justice.
* He was cleared of eight other fraud charges and one of racketeering.
* Black is expected to spend 15 to 20 years in a US prison.
- OBSERVER
RISE AND FALL OF A MEDIA TYCOON
1944: Born Conrad Moffat Black in Montreal, Canada.
1966: Buys first newspaper, the Eastern Townships Advertiser in Quebec.
1986: Takes over The Daily Telegraph.
1992: Marries his second wife, Canadian journalist and right-wing columnist Barbara Amiel.
1996: Hollinger International, his holding company, listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
2001: Ennobled as Lord Black of Crossharbour after giving up his Canadian citizenship.
June 2003: Agrees to an internal investigation into payments to himself and other Hollinger directors.
November 2003: Investigation is completed. Lord Black resigns as chief executive of Hollinger International.
January 2004: Hollinger International sues him for the return of US$200 million in alleged unauthorised payments and sacks him as chairman. He counter-sues for defamation.
The Barclay brothers agree to a US$466.5 million deal with Lord Black to buy his controlling stake in Hollinger.
February 2004: US court injunction blocks Lord Black from selling his stake.
May 2004: Hollinger International accuses Lord Black and its former president, David Radler, of fraud, now claiming they stole more US$1.2 billion.
September 2004: Canadian regulators and Hollinger investors file lawsuit against Lord Black and the company.
October 2004: US court clears Lord Black of US$1.2 billion racketeering suit brought by Hollinger International.
November 2004: SEC files civil fraud charges against Lord Black and Radler. Lord Black resigns as chairman and chief executive of Hollinger.
September 2005: Radler pleads guilty and agrees to testify against others involved in the alleged US$60 million fraud.
November 2005: Lord Black and three associates charged with eight counts of fraud. The criminal indictment is later increased to 11 counts of fraud, one of obstruction of justice and one of racketeering.
March 2007: Trial begins in Chicago.
July 2007: Verdicts returned. Lord Black is found guilty of criminal fraud and obstruction of justice but is cleared of racketeering and wire fraud.
Source: BBC
