David Radler

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F. David Radler (born 1944 in Montreal, Quebec) is a Jewish Canadian executive and close associate of Conrad Black for 36 years. Radler was once president of Ravelston Corporation, a privately owned corporation owned by Black and Radler to control their former newspaper empire. Ravelston owned Argus Corporation which in turn controlled Chicago-based Hollinger International. In 2005 14.1% of Ravelston was owned by Radler.

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[edit] Career

In the 1980s Radler was in charge of the sale of Argus Corporation's Dominion supermarket chain to The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company, or A&P. As well, Radler was once based in Chicago to help Black's media business -- managed under Chicago-based Hollinger International) in the United States-- as publisher of the Chicago Sun-Times newspaper and president and chief operating officer of Hollinger International.

[edit] Controversy

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After buying up the London Daily Telegraph, the Chicago Sun-Times, the Jerusalem Post, the Southam chain of Canadian newspapers and hundreds of small American newspapers, Hollinger International began to suffer from financial strain in the late 1990s. Radler and Black then sold off hundreds of their Canadian and American newspapers. Radler, who has lived in Vancouver, British Columbia, since the early 70's, created a company called Horizon Publications Inc. This bought up some of the American newspapers owned by Hollinger International.

After controversy developed in 2003-2004 concerning $32,000,000 of 'non-compete' payments made to Black and Radler in the sale of Hollinger newspapers, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (and Canadian authorities as well) announced that Black and Radler were under investigation for their involvement.

Radler was eventually charged with five counts of mail fraud and two counts of wire fraud. On September 20, 2005 Radler pleaded guilty in a Chicago court to one count of mail fraud in relation to the 'non-compete' payments.

These payments had been diverted by Radler to a company controlled by himself and Black, Horizon Publications Inc. By disguising the payments as 'non-compete' payments, non sales proceeds, Radler took advantage of a Canadian tax ruling that made them tax-exempt. The prosecution argued that these moneys belonged to Hollinger International, and had been improperly and secretly diverted to Black and Radler. Radler was sentenced to a fine of $250,000 and a term of 29 months in prison. Radler's sentence will not be served until he has finished co-operating with authorities investigating Black. So far Black has not been charged.

[edit] Trivia

  • When the investigation into Hollinger/Ravelston got under way, Radler was quoted as saying "They always come after the Jew first", even though there has been absolutely no indication that any anti-semitism was involved and, indeed, many of the very board directors that recommended prosecution of Radler are Jewish (Henry Kissinger, et al).

[edit] See also

[edit] References

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