CHICAGO, Aug. 18 (UPI) -- U.S. prosecutors have charged former Chicago Sun-Times publisher David Radler, one-time president of Hollinger International Inc., with fraud.
Besides indicting Radler on seven fraud counts arising from an alleged scheme to drain $32 million from the company between 1998 and 2001, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois Patrick Fitzgerald also indicted Mark Kipnis, top in-house lawyer for Hollinger Inc., the Canadian company that owned Hollinger International.
While Ravelston Corp., a Canadian-holding company controlled by former media tycoon Conrad Black, founder of Hollinger International, was charged, Black was not accused of wrongdoing.
In 2003, Radler was ousted from Hollinger International, along with Black, amid claims the pair had stolen a fortune from the once-mighty newspaper holding company.
Hollinger International today owns the Chicago Sun-Times and a few suburban newspapers after selling off nearly all its major daily newspapers in England, Canada and Israel.
"Radler, through his attorney, authorized the government to disclose that he is co-operating with the investigation and expects to enter a plea of guilty at a later date," Fitzgerald's office said in a statement.
Last year, a special committee of Hollinger International's board concluded that Black and Radler diverted more than $400 million through years of "aggressive looting."
