Conrad Black released from prison Black, 67, whose empire once included the Chicago Sun-Times, The Telegraph, The Jerusalem Post and small papers across the US and Canada, had returned to prison last September to finish serving his sentence. Earlier this week, Canadian government sources said he would be allowed to live there upon his release, where he would be granted a one-year temporary residence pemit. A member of the House of Lords, he had been sentenced to more than six years in prison after his 2007 conviction in Chicago, but had then been released on bail two years later to pursue an appeal that was partially successful. A judge reduced his sentence to three years and he returned in prison last September. With time off for good behaviour, he has completed his sentence. Black's big chance to squash his convictions arose in June 2010, when the US Supreme Court sharply curtailed the disputed "honest services" laws that underpinned part of his case. The 7th US Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago tossed out two of Black's fraud convictions last year, citing that landmark ruling. But it said one conviction for fraud and one for obstruction of justice were not affected by the Supreme Court's ruling. The fraud conviction, the judges concluded, involved Black and others taking $600,000 and had nothing to do with honest services. At the core of the honest services charges against Black was his strategy, starting in 1998, of selling off the bulk of the small community papers, which were published in smaller cities across the US and Canada. Black and other Hollinger executives received millions of dollars in payments from the companies that bought the community papers in return for promises that they would not return to compete with the new owners. Prosecutors said the executives pocketed the money, which they said belonged to shareholders, without telling Hollinger's board of directors.