Facing decades in prison, Conrad Black is promising to fight a long battle to clear his name and remain a free man.
"I feel like a soldier conscripted for a foreign war. You fight till you win, and then you come home," Lord Black wrote in an email to The Globe and Mail on the weekend.
The former media baron says he has already hired lawyers to handle an appeal of his convictions.
"We move on to the next phase in this long war," he wrote. "We got rid of most of [the charges], and expect to get rid of the rest on appeal."
A Chicago jury on Friday convicted Black of three counts of fraud and one count of obstruction of justice. The core of the fraud trial involved the payment of non-compete fees at Hollinger Inc., a publicly-traded company controlled and managed by Black, who held the title of CEO until 2003.
Black was cleared on nine other charges, including racketeering, wire fraud and tax evasion.
The serious charge of obstruction, which carries a prison term of up to 20 years, relates to a 2005 incident, when Black was caught on videotape removing 13 boxes from his Toronto office.
Prosecutors alleged Black moved the material just before receiving a subpoena from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Black, however, insisted he took only personal items. He returned the boxes a few days later.
Gordon Walker, former chairman of Hollinger Inc., was responsible for installing the high-tech security cameras that captured Black's actions.
"My colleagues and I ... were interim directors after the removal of Lord Black from the position of chairman and from being a director of that board," Walker told CTV's Canada AM on Monday.
"We were more-or-less the court-sanctioned directors, and so our job was to preserve a situation, and in that particular case, we were aware of a court order that nothing could be removed."
Walker said a former chief superintendent of the RCMP recommended the digital security equipment.
"I don't think that Lord Black ... knew anything about the new equipment that was installed," he said.
With respect to Black's defiant emails, Walker said the tone doesn't surprise him.
"Mr. Black is a fighter. He's a pugilist from way back. He will fight and he will fight and fight."
Black's first legal hurdle comes Thursday when Judge Amy St. Eve will rule on whether he can remain free on bail until he is sentenced in November.
Some legal experts think Black is likely to remain free because he is a first-time offender and his release would not likely cause public outrage.
