Radler’s lying exposed in the testimony against Conrad Black

Government’s star witness in a fraud case was declared as a liar by the media tycoon Conrad Black’s chief defense counsel on Wednesday during prosecution. The defense counsel severely prosecuted Radler and brought him to admit his deception to not only the Federal investigators, but also his own lawyers.

''I wasn't totally truthful,'' admitted prosecution witness F. David Radler, who was Black's partner in the newspaper business for decades.

''Not totally truthful -- is that what you call it?'' hammered Black defense attorney Edward L. Greenspan, his voice rising. ''Call it lying,'' conceded Radler, in response to the prosecutor’s interrogation. The Federal lawyers hope to settle the case with the insider’s testimony. The admittance of Radler that he had lied has proven to be the most critical moment for the whole case.

"The fact is, you must perform here or lose your deal?" Greenspan asked

F. David Radler, was the first government’s witness who testified for the case of fraud against the shareholders by deflecting payments worth millions of dollars for assets of Chicago based Hollinger International Newspaper to a Canadian company managed by Black.

According to prosecutors, Radler and Black robbed Hollinger International of more than $60 million by concealing the payments as non-competition payments from companies who had paid for the assets.

Radler after pleading himself guilty in one of the courts had concurred to testify against his partners in the fraud case, which included Black and three other people, who were top executives at Hollinger International. Radler’s confession of cheating the Hollinger International out of millions of dollars is expected to receive jail sentence of only 29 months, which is a reward for him for testifying against his partners.

The Federal prosecutor, after Radler agreed that he lied to the committee during his plea as being guilty recited a list of meetings Radler had with federal investigators and other lawyers which he had before his plea, back in 2005, Greenspan asked, "How many of these 24 people did you lie to?"

Radler said, "I'm going to say a fair number of them."