Conrad Black Ordered To Stay Stateside Until Sentencing

By: E&P Staff The federal judge who presided over Conrad Black's fraud trial denied the fallen newspaper baron's request to return to his native Canada while awaiting his sentencing in late November.

U.S. District Court Judge Amy J. St. Eve said she is still concerned that if the Montreal-born Black were to go to Canada he might fight extradition back to the States.

"With no additional assets and the uncertainty of the extradition process, I am not convinced that you have met your burden," St. Eve told Black's lawyers.

Last month, St. Eve allowed Black to be free on a $21 million bond until his Nov. 30 sentencing on three fraud counts and one count of obstruction of justice in the swindling of the parent company of the Chicago Sun-Times. But then, and again on Wednesday, she ordered him to stay either within the Chicago area or, with prior notice to probation officers, in Florida, where he has a mansion in Palm Beach. Black and his wife, Barbara Amiel Black, have been staying at a downtown Chicago hotel since the beginning of the trial in March.

Before Wednesday's hearing, U.S. prosecutors filed a letter from a Canadian Department of Justice official that said that, even with the waivers Black has signed, the extradition process could be lengthy if he decided to fight it.