David Radler
Encyclopedia
F. David Radler is a Canadian
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 executive and close associate of Conrad Black
Conrad Black
Conrad Moffat Black, Baron Black of Crossharbour, OC, KCSG, PC is a Canadian-born member of the British House of Lords, and a historian, columnist and publisher, who was for a time the third largest newspaper magnate in the world. Lord Black controlled Hollinger International, Inc...

 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.

Career

Radler graduated from Queen's University
Queen's University
Queen's University, , is a public research university located in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. Founded on 16 October 1841, the university pre-dates the founding of Canada by 26 years. Queen's holds more more than of land throughout Ontario as well as Herstmonceux Castle in East Sussex, England...

 in 1967 with a Master's degree in Business Administration. In the 1980s Radler was in charge of the sale of Argus Corporation's Dominion
Dominion Stores
Dominion Stores refers to the following supermarket chains in Canada:*Dominion , the former national chain, more recently operating only in the Greater Toronto Area. The remaining locations were rebranded as Metro in 2008....

 supermarket chain to The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company
The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company
The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, better known as A&P, is a supermarket and liquor store chain in the United States. Its supermarkets, which are under six different banners, are found in Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania. A&P's liquor stores, known as...

, or A&P. As well, Radler was once based in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

 to help Black's media business—managed under Chicago-based Hollinger International) in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

-- as publisher of the Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago Sun-Times
The Chicago Sun-Times is an American daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois. It is the flagship paper of the Sun-Times Media Group.-History:The Chicago Sun-Times is the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the city...

newspaper and president and chief operating officer of Hollinger International.

Controversy

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. He had been assisting the prosecution in the investigation of his former business partner. Black is currently being tried on the many charges; his trial began in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

 in March 2007. Patrick Fitzgerald
Patrick Fitzgerald
Patrick J. Fitzgerald is the current United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois and a member of the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Special Counsel...

 is the lead prosecutor in the Black case, and Black is represented by a legal team which includes Toronto lawyer Edward Greenspan
Edward Greenspan
Edward Leonard Greenspan, QC is a Canadian lawyer and prolific author of legal volumes. He is one of the most famous defence lawyers in Canada, owing to several high-profile clients and to his national exposure on the popular Canadian Broadcasting Corporation radio series, The Scales of Justice .A...

.

In the fall of 2005, Queen's University, Radler's alma mater, returned the financial donation which Radler had given to its School of Business. It was widely reported at the time that a Toronto hospital had no intention of returning Conrad Black's financial gift. This prompted some to question the wisdom of Queen's returning David Radler's generous donation. The business school, for its part, explained that the charge that Mr Radler had pleaded guilty to was "very serious" and not congruent with the values of the school and those it teaches.

On March 18, 2007, it was reported that Mr. Radler had signed a settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that will see him pay a penalty of almost US$29 million and prevent him from acting as an officer or director of any public company in the United States. The next day, it was announced that Mr. Radler has settled with the Sun-Times Media Group
Sun-Times Media Group
Sun-Times Media Group is a Chicago-based newspaper publisher. It is known for its prior association with controversial Canadian businessman Conrad Black.-History:...

, agreeing to pay them $64.1 million. The news of the SEC settlement sparked protest from the defense at the Conrad Black trial; the defense claimed that such news would negatively influence the jury.

Radler started serving his 29-month sentence for fraud on February 25, 2008 by reporting to a Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...

prison. He was turned over to Canadian authorities on September 18, 2008. It is believed that he was being held in a penal facility in British Columbia, although this cannot be confirmed.

On Dec. 15, 2008, David Radler was granted a full parole and released from the Canadian penal facility in which he was being held. He served only 10 months of a 29-month sentence. He was released on the grounds that he was unlikely to "commit an offence involving violence" before his sentence expired. The board said it was limited to considering only the matter of physical violence and could not consider the financial devastation caused by his crimes or the many victims of these crimes left in its wake. Mr. Radler is now back at work in his office in Vancouver running his business, the Alberta Newspaper Group.

External links

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