Conrad Black, once one of the most powerful newspaper barons in the English-speaking world,  has been found guilty of  three charges of fraud and one count of obstruction of justice. He was acquitted of nine other charges, including racketeering.

The verdict early Friday, by a federal jury in Chicago, came after 12 days of deliberation. It was a stunning blow to a Canadian-born British lord who mixed with the political and financial elites in New York and London. Black had built a global newspaper empire that included the Telegraph of London, the Chicago Sun-Times, the Jerusalem Post and the National Post of Canada.

 Black and three associates were charged in 2005 with stealing $60 million from the newspaper company Hollinger International.

At the trial, prosecutors detailed  the free-spending social life of Black and his wife. They portrayed a C.E.O.   "who was desperate for cash to finance a luxury lifestyle he believed he deserved," the Financial Times says.