[Conrad Black]'s appeal lawyer Andrew Frey was "surprised and disappointed" by the decision.

"Black has a much longer sentence and therefore even if he partially wins, the court feels it's unlikely that the sentence will be shorter than the time it would take to decide the appeal," Frey said.

Judges Frank Eastbrook, William Baur and Richard Posner said "the court believes that all three defendants have raised a 'substantial' question" concerning two of the fraud counts, but issues on another fraud count and Black's obstruction of justice conviction were less clear."