Black's lawyers accuse witness of lying
Media mogul Conrad Black’s lawyer spent a second day attempting to demolish the government’s star witness as a liar who would say anything to get in the good graces of prosecutors.
“Are you able to point to something that would allow people to look at you and conclude that you are lying?” defence attorney Edward Greenspan asked David Radler, the former No 2 man in Black’s newspaper empire, which included the Daily Telegraph.
“We may be looking at you right now and you may be lying – true?” Greenspan asked Radler, who immediately shot back: “False.”
“False – and we have your word on it,” Greenspan said sarcastically.
Black, 62, is accused of swindling the Hollinger International media empire out of $84m (€62m), mainly by selling off hundreds of US and Canadian community newspapers and receiving payments from the buyers.
The payments were in exchange for promises not to compete with the new owners. Prosecutors say Hollinger shareholders deserved all of the money.
The shareholders did get millions of dollars but additional millions were paid to Black, Radler, two other Hollinger executives and other companies that were controlled by Black, even though most of the companies that bought the papers had concerns only about competition from Hollinger International.
Prosecutors are looking to Radler as the insider who was by Black’s side for decades to clinch their case by telling the inside story.
That makes Greenspan’s efforts to wreck Radler’s credibility in the eyes of the jurors one of the pivotal moments of the trial.
Greenspan forced Radler to admit that he lied about the payments to his own lawyers, a special committee formed by the Hollinger board of directors to investigate alleged abuses and finally federal officials.
“You lied to save yourself and others?” Greenspan hammered away.
“Correct,” Radler said.
“Aren’t you doing the same thing here? Lying to save yourself?” Greenspan asked. Radler insisted, however, that he now telling the truth.
After half a day of court in Chicago yesterday, US District Judge Amy St Eve sent the jurors home until Monday, when Radler is to be back on the stand.
