CHICAGO - Conrad Black's lawyers have submitted a statement to counter claims made of two prison workers about their client's behaviour at a Florida prison.

In the statement, Black's lawyer say the portrayal of the former media baron as a privileged elitist while in prison is "demonstrably false."

The statement says Black did not conduct himself at Coleman prison with the air of a condescending snob that was portrayed during the course of his criminal case, but rather was generous with his time and talents to anyone who came to him for help.

Affidavits by two prison workers filed with a U.S. federal court in Illinois alleged Black shirked tutoring responsibilities and used other inmates as servants while behind bars.

Black's conduct while in custody is under scrutiny ahead of his resentencing later this month on whether he should return to jail on two remaining convictions.

Black, who had been serving a six and a-half-year sentence in the U.S. federal prison, has been free since last summer after the U.S. Supreme Court curtailed the "honest services" laws used to convict Black of defrauding Hollinger International investors.