CHICAGO — A U.S. federal appeals court on Thursday denied former newspaper baron Conrad Black's request to stay free on bond while appealing his fraud sentence and ordered him to go to prison on Monday.

Black, 62, convicted of defrauding the shareholders of his Hollinger International Inc. newspaper empire, had sought to stay free on bond on grounds there was a strong possibility his conviction would be reversed.

The U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals did allow Black's two co-defendants, Peter Atkinson and John Boultbee, to remain free on bond while appealing their sentences.

But the judge said there was no realistic chance any appeals court would overturn one conviction that applied to Black only and not Atkinson or Boultbee.

Black was captured on a videotape removing boxes of documents from his Toronto office even though investigators had ordered them not to be moved. As a result he was convicted of obstruction of justice.

The appeals court noted that Black had been sentenced to 78 months on the obstruction count alone -- "substantially longer than the normal course of an appeal.''