TORONTO — Conrad Black is demanding the FBI return $9 million US they seized from the proceeds of the sale of his New York apartment, the National Post reports.

In a letter delivered to the FBI office in Chicago, Black claims authorities are trying to prevent him from defending himself against an "imminent'' prosecution by seizing his money.

The letter calls the seizure unjustified and a "grotesque abuse of power.''

Black has not been charged in the U.S. but the letter says the former media baron sold the apartment to pay for lawyers to defend him.

Acting on a warrant signed by a Chicago judge, FBI agents showed up at the real estate closing earlier this month of Black's Park Avenue apartment and seized $7,908,687 US. Earlier that day, they seized $1,020,000 that had been held in escrow as part of the sale.

The civil warrant said Black derived the money as part of a fraud scheme, though he hasn't been charged with criminal wrongdoing.

Black stepped down as chairman of the newspaper company Hollinger International under pressure in 2003 after an internal investigation accused him and other insiders of looting the company's coffers of hundreds of millions of dollars.

Former Chicago Sun-Times publisher David Radler pleaded guilty Sept. 20 to mail fraud in a scheme to siphon $32 million out of Hollinger International.

The U.S. federal investigation into what happened at Hollinger International is continuing.