CONRAD BLACK is the author of critically acclaimed biographies of Maurice Duplessis, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Richard Nixon. The former head of the Argus and Hollinger corporate groups and of London's Telegraph newspapers, Black is also the founder of Canada's National Post, and a columnist there and at the National Review Online (New York). Black has been a member of the British House of Lords since 2001.   In 2005, Black was accused of a total of 17 charges of criminal corporate misconduct in the United States, and prosecutors sough life imprisonment and fines and restitution totalling $140 million. After six years, all the charges were either abandoned, rejected by jurors, or in the case of four convictions, vacated unanimously by the United States Supreme Court. One the original convictions, he was sentenced to imprisonment for 78 months and restitution of $6.1 million. After 29 months in federal prison, he was released on bail, but the appellate panel whose findings had been vacated by the high court restored two counts when the case was remanded back to it. On June 24, 2011, Black was resentenced to a further seven and a half months in prison and 90 per cent of his fine was restored to him. On May 4, 2012, he was released. He has never ceased to assert his innocence.