Former Hollinger International Inc. Chairman Conrad Black was convicted on three counts of mail fraud and one count of obstruction of justice on Friday in a mixed verdict that gave prosecutors a victory on the most serious allegations against the onetime media mogul.

Mr. Black, 62 years old, was acquitted on nine other counts, including charges of racketeering and wire fraud, some of which related to the alleged misuse of company funds to support a lavish, jet-setting lifestyle. The charges on which the prosecution prevailed went to the heart of the case: the government's allegations that Mr. Black and three other former Hollinger executives skimmed millions from the company through a series of deals made without proper board approval or disclosure.

Facing 35 years in prison and millions of dollars in fines and asset forfeitures , Mr. Black said he would appeal. Sentencing is set for Nov. 30.The verdict came on the 12th day of jury deliberations and after three months of testimony from dozens of witnesses. Mr. Black's three co-defendants -- Jack Boultbee, 64, former Hollinger chief financial officer; Peter Atkinson, 60, former Hollinger vice president and general counsel; and Mark Kipnis, 59, corporate counsel in Hollinger International's Chicago base -- were each found guilty on three counts of mail fraud.

Mr. Black, whose attorneys said he would appeal, faces as many as 35 years in prison and $1 million in fines and asset forfeitures. Sentencing is set for Nov. 30. After the verdict, Mr. Black, who has lately been living in Toronto, turned in his passport and was ordered to stay in the Chicago area until Thursday, when the judge will decide on a government motion to revoke his $21 million bond and take him into custody. Mr. Black said nothing as he left the courtroom, walking slowly with his daughter. He declined to comment.

The verdict "was a clear victory" for the government and the office of U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, says Michael McGovern, a white-collar defense attorney at Ropes & Gray LLP in New York and a former federal prosecutor. "It was a complex case, which is always a challenge."

Mr. Black is the latest in a string of high-profile executives convicted of crimes relating to their role in a series of corporate scandals. Among them: former Enron Corp. executives Jeffrey Skilling and the late Kenneth Lay; Adelphia Communications Corp. founder John Rigas; former Tyco International Ltd. CEO L. Dennis Kozlowski; former WorldCom Inc. CEO Bernard Ebbers; and Joseph Nacchio, the former CEO of Qwest Communications International Inc.

"We're gratified by the jury's verdict," said Mr. Fitzgerald, who led the investigation against former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby. "We think the verdict vindicates the serious public interest in making sure that when insiders in a corporation deal with money entrusted to them by the shareholders...that they not break the law to benefit themselves instead of the shareholders."

While his case didn't draw as much attention in the U.S. as previous corporate-scandal cases, Mr. Black personified the jet-setting executive. The Canadian-born executive built Hollinger into what once was the world's third-largest newspaper company by circulation, at one point operating more than 300 newspapers, including the Daily Telegraph in London, the Jerusalem Post in Israel, the Chicago Sun-Times and Canada's National Post. Hollinger International now has scaled back and operates under the name Sun-Times Media Group Inc., owning the Chicago Sun-Times and about 100 community papers in the Chicago area.

In 2001, he gave up his Canadian citizenship to become a British lord, taking the title Lord Black of Crossharbour. He hobnobbed with the likes of Henry Kissinger, Margaret Thatcher and the Princess of Wales, split his time between residences in London, New York, Florida and Toronto, and married the glamorous Canadian conservative columnist Barbara Amiel Black. Mr. Black even found time to write biographies of Franklin Roosevelt and Richard Nixon.

But Mr. Black was forced out of Hollinger in 2003, after an investment firm that held stock in the company began questioning management fees and noncompetition payments made to Mr. Black and other top executives. A subsequent internal investigation labeled Hollinger's business practices "corporate kleptocracy." The government drew much of its evidence from this investigation, telling jurors that the former Hollinger executives were the same as bank robbers and street criminals. Defense attorneys painted Mr. Black as a victim who was wronged by his top lieutenant and business partner, F. David Radler.

When Mr. Black was indicted in 2005, prosecutors accused him of swindling shareholders out of $84 million. But during bond discussions that followed the verdict, Mr. Black's defense attorneys said he was convicted of stealing $2.9 million.

Legal experts say the case hinged on the testimony of Mr. Radler, who had earlier pleaded guilty to a single count of mail fraud in exchange for a lighter sentence. For his cooperation, Mr. Radler's sentence is expected to be 29 months and a $250,000 fine. Mr. Radler's attorney was out of the country on Friday and not available to comment.

During eight days on the stand, Mr. Radler testified that Mr. Black came up with a scheme to approve millions of dollars of payments to himself and others from the sale of former Hollinger newspapers. The payments were said to be for the executives' agreement not to compete with the new owners of the papers. The defense said the buyers requested the noncompete deals. But among the government witnesses were representatives of the purchasers who said they hadn't asked for the noncompetes.

"It was the most convincing testimony in the case," says Hugh Totten, a lawyer at Perkins Coie LLP in Chicago, who sat through much of the trial.

Legal experts say the guilty verdict on the obstruction-of-justice charge was fairly clear-cut. The government charged Mr. Black for removing 13 boxes with documents from his Toronto offices in 2005. A security camera caught Mr. Black and his driver carrying boxes out of the office and loading them into the car. A charge of money laundering was dropped in the trial.

Mr. Black was acquitted on other charges, including the allegations that he defrauded Hollinger International by taking the company plane for a personal vacation to Bora Bora, charging the company for two-thirds of a $62,000 birthday party for his wife, and in the purchase from the company of a Park Avenue apartment in Manhattan.