PALM BEACH, Fla. - Conrad Black's long on-again, off-again legal odyssey was back on again Thursday as he left the posh Palm Beach mansion where he spent the night, presumably on his way to Chicago for a court appearance that could determine whether he can try to return to Canada.
Black was spotted in the back of a black SUV as the vehicle exited the gates where members of the international media had been holding vigil since the previous night, when he arrived at the closest thing he has to a U.S. home after more than two years in a Florida prison.
Black's wife, Barbara Amiel, was in the SUV with him.
The pair are likely bound for the Windy City, where Black will appear Friday before Judge Amy St. Eve -- the same one who convicted him in 2007 on fraud and obstruction of justice charges and originally sentenced him to six-and-a-half years in prison.
Earlier this week, Black was granted bail following a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that narrowed the scope of the "honest services" law central to his conviction.
On Friday, he'll learn the terms of his release -- including whether he'll be allowed to leave the United States.
Black has made it clear he wants to return to Canada, but whether he can get in is another question -- he's been convicted of an indictable offence and is no longer a Canadian citizen. His only recourse may be a special dispensation from Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney.
For his part, Kenney isn't tipping his hand.
"I can't comment on any individual case because of the Privacy Act, nor can I comment on a hypothetical situation," Kenney said in an interview.
"Every case is assessed by public servants against the law, the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, and that's really I can say."
The mansion, which has a dock jutting out from the back onto a lagoon, is reportedly where Amiel had been staying while the former media baron was behind bars. Earlier in the day, she was seen departing the mansion behind the wheel of a dark-coloured Lincoln.
The exclusive Palm Beach neighbourhood was generally quiet, aside from the sound of crashing waves just outside the gated home.
Black's Hollinger International once owned the Chicago Sun-Times, The Daily Telegraph of London, The Jerusalem Post and hundreds of community papers in the U.S. and Canada.
At the core of the charges against Black was his strategy, starting in 1998, of selling off the bulk of the small community papers published in smaller cities across the United States 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.
Black's lawyers have maintained that federal prosecutors failed to provide adequate evidence that he defrauded anyone or tried to hide key documents.
