Black found guilty of fraud

This isn't a story we have been reporting on much, but we mentioned it when it all kicked off a couple of years back, so I suppose we ought to report on its conclusion. The former owner of the Daily Telegraph, Conrad Black, has been found guilty of fraud at the end of a long running trial in which the former media mogul was accused of swindling shareholders in his media firm, Hollinger International, out of millions in order to fund his lavish lifestyle. Black was accused of fraud, racketeering and tax evasion, but after twelve days of jury deliberation at the end of a fourteen week trial was found guilty of just three of the fraud charges against him. That said, those charges are pretty serious and prosecutors are now moving to have the former mogul jailed, while those who lost out during Black's reign at Hollinger are now planning to launch civil lawsuits that would most likely bankrupt him should they be successful, which given the criminal conviction, the plaintiff's will be quietly confident they will. It is unlikely Black will actually be jailed until November, though he will have to stick to pretty strict bail conditions ahead of a sentencing hearing. The court ruling is a dramatic conclusion to one of the media world's biggest stories of recent years.