Conrad Black's Fraud Convictions Overturned

The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday overturned three fraud convictions against Montreal-born Conrad Black, and remanded his case back to the Chicago court that sentenced him.

Black's lawyers had challenged the "honest services" fraud law, a contentious addendum to the U.S. federal mail fraud and wire fraud statute that critics argue is too vague and has been used to make a crime out of mistakes, minor transgressions and ethical violations. In 1987, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in McNally v. United States that the mail fraud and wire fraud statutes pertained strictly to schemes to defraud victims of tangible property, including money. In 1988, the U.S. Congress enacted a new 28-word law that made it illegal for officials, executives and others to scheme to deprive those they serve and possibly others of "the intangible right to honest services."

The jailed former media baron's obstruction of justice conviction remains in place.

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