While prosecutors insisted Lord Black’s lifestyle was not on trial, his taste for the finer things in life became a riveting part of the courtroom drama.

Although it appeared his crimes were rooted first in his desire to pay off debts at his Canadian holding company, he later financed the lavish lifestyle he enjoyed with his wife, Barbara Amiel Black, the former newspaper columnist who once confided to Vogue she had an “extravagance” that knew no bounds.