Conrad Black reports to prison

CHICAGO, March 3 (UPI) -- Convicted media tycoon Conrad Black reported to federal prison in Florida Monday to begin serving a 6 1/2-year term for siphoning millions from his companies.

Black, a Canadian-born member of the British House of Lords who maintains a residence in Florida, believes he will ultimately be vindicated, said Andrew Frey, his appellate attorney.

"He is a strong person, and I am confident that he will soldier through this," Frey said in an e-mail to The Orlando Sentinel. "But he firmly believes he has done nothing unlawful, which makes it difficult to have to suffer imprisonment."

Black, 63, and three other executives of Hollinger International were found guilty fraud last July in the theft of $6.1 million from one of his newspapers, the Chicago Sun-Times, the Toronto Post reported.

"If I had committed any of the offenses charged, I would have pleaded guilty and asked for a sentence that would enable me to atone for my crime and assuage my guilt and shame," Black wrote for the Sunday edition of the Post, a newspaper he founded.

The U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals last Thursday denied his request to remain out on bail, the report said.