TORONTO - Conrad Black pledged Friday he will return to professional life even if he is handed a jail sentence for fraud and obstruction of justice, saying any time behind bars would "compound the injustice'' of his criminal trial.
"Even on a worse case, I'll be back,'' Black said Friday in an interview with BBC Radio 4's Today program.
Black's comments came just over a week before he is to be sentenced by a Chicago judge for his role in defrauding shareholders at his former newspaper company, Hollinger International.
Black and three other executives were convicted of three counts of fraud, while Black himself was also convicted of obstruction of justice. Black could face as much as 30 years in prison after he is sentenced on Dec. 10, although most experts say he's more likely to serve between seven and 12.
His former business partner, David Radler, was given a more lenient sentence of 29 months under a plea agreement to testify against him.
Black has repeatedly bashed Radler for co-operating with prosecutors, calling him a liar who fabricated testimony to save his own skin.
He has also pointed to the fact that he was acquitted of 12 charges, vowing to get rid of the remaining four on appeal.
"It has been my honour to show the shortcomings of the plea bargain system and the shortcomings of the corporate governance zealots,'' Black told the BBC.
Any time served behind bars, he added, would mean he is "merely participating in compounding the injustice, which will be the accepted fact of this case before too long.''
On Friday, he maintained he had done "absolutely nothing'' wrong.
"I am innocent. When you are innocent and when you are wrongly accused, how do you conduct yourself? Do you roll over and say: `Well, I'm innocent but since I've been found guilty, I'm going to be humble and full of remorse?''' he said in the interview.
"I'm just defending the rights that are the birth right of everybody in the United States, in the United Kingdom and in Canada -- and other civilized countries.''
Black also said he regretted misjudging "the strength of the corporate governance movement,'' and declined to talk about how he would handle spending time in jail.
Still, he acknowledged jail was "a distinct possibility but... (not) a strong likelihood.''
"If it comes to that, believe me, I'll cope with it, but I'm not prepared to hypothesize,'' he said.
At the end of it all, Black said he will return to professional life _ possibly in finance.
"I only have a background in two areas: publishing and finance,'' he said. "I think I could return to finance. I mean, this is not a difficult area to make money in.''
Black, who recently published a biography of former U.S. president Richard Nixon, plans to continue writing as well.
"In fact, I will write the authoritative story of these travails,'' he said.
