David Radler to be returned to Canada

David Radler has begun serving a 29-month sentence for fraud, secured in a plea bargain for testifying against his former friend and associate Conrad Black.The transfer would need approval by the Canadian and U.S. governments and, because of Canadian rules, could result in a sentence of as little as six months for Radler.
Radler apologized for his actions at his sentencing hearing, saying "I will live my life with this, and I'm sorry for what I've done."The U.S. Bureau of Prisons said Radler surrendered himself at the Moshannon Valley prison in Pennsylvania at 11:30 a.m. ET, but didn't release any further details.
The Moshannon prison is operated by Cornell Companies Inc., a Texas-based private corrections company, and houses up to 1,300 low-security "specialized populations like sentenced criminal aliens," according to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons.
Security measures include double fences with razor wire, 24-hour patrol and cameras, but the prison also offers several educational and rehabilitation programs to help prepare inmates to return to their communities.While Moshannon is a low-security jail, the two prisons closest to Radler's home are the Ferndale Institution, a minimum-security prison, and William Head Prison, which has maintained grounds and until recently included a miniature golf course.

"He is in our custody," said spokeswoman Felicia Ponce.The media executive and former right-hand man in Black's newspaper empire, now inmate 18189-424, will have been fingerprinted, given a medical and mental evaluation and searched as soon as he was admitted.Judge Amy St. Eve had recommended Radler serve his sentence at Moshannon, as requested by his lawyers, when she upheld the 2005 plea bargain in December.With his plea deal "David Radler bought himself certainty," said Jacob Frenkel, a former U.S. prosecutor who has been following the case."By virtue of the fact that Conrad Black was sentenced to six and a half years and David Radler was viewed a central figure in the conspiracy, he likely saved himself at least four years of jail."Radler, 65, was granted a more lenient sentence of 29 months and a $250,000 fine in exchange for testifying against Black and three other executives in a four-month trial last year involving deals made by the former Hollinger newspaper empire.Black and his lawyers fiercely attacked Radler during the four-month trial for choosing to testify, and accused him of lying about Black's role in the fraud scheme to secure his deal with prosecutors.At the trial, Black dismissed Radler's testimony, saying outside of court: "I don't think any jury in the world would convict anybody on the basis of what he said. I repeat my long-standing view that this was never a criminal case - except possibly against him."Prosecutors appeared to agree with at least part of that statement by the end of the trial, distancing themselves from Radler's less-than-stellar testimony and telling the jury they could find Black guilty even if they ignored everything Radler had said.But his testimony was enough to help convict Black, who is slated to begin his own sentence for fraud and obstruction of justice convictions in one week.Black has been free on bail since his own sentencing, and has asked an appeals court to allow him to stay out of prison pending appeal.Prosecutors on Monday called the motion by Black and co-defendants Peter Atkinson and Jack Boultbee a "herculean effort to make what is essentially a sufficiency of the evidence appeal - and a weak one at that - appear to be something else.""Appellants realize the nearly insurmountable task ahead in convincing the court that their sufficiency arguments present substantial questions likely to result in reversal or a new trial," government lawyers said in documents filed with the Court of Appeals Monday.The appeals court is expected to rule on the bail issue sometime this week. It denied an emergency request from Black to remain free on bond during the appeal, saying Friday there was no need for an emergency decision because there was still plenty of time.
Radler, for his part, is expected to make an application to be returned to Canada shortly after entering the U.S. system. As part of the plea deal, prosecutors agreed not to oppose his possible transfer to a Canadian prison.His lawyer Anton Valukas, had remained relatively quiet on the possible transfer, but said after the sentencing hearing that he "would try to have him in a facility that is closer to his home" in Vancouver.He said at the time that Radler chose Moshannon because "it's a facility which, I'm told, (hosts) other Canadians and it's a good facility."
Valukas wasn't immediately available for comment Monday.