Former Times Owners Under Investigation

F. David Radler, who helped facilitate the purchase in 1996 and subsequent sale in 1999 of the Northwest Arkansas Times for Hollinger International, is in hot water with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Radler, former deputy chairman of Hollinger, and Conrad Black, the former chairman, allegedly used their positions as head of Hollinger to sell newspapers to themselves for tens of millions of dollars less than fair market value. Hollinger was disposing of smaller newspapers to concentrate on the Chicago Sun-Times and Telegraph of London, which it had recently acquired.

The two allegedly set up their own company, Horizon, to buy some of the small newspapers for $18 million, which was $25.6 million less than Hollinger thought the papers would fetch, according to an article in the Telegraph.

Horizon didn’t buy the Northwest Arkansas Times, though. Hollinger sold it to Community Publishers Inc., which is led by Jim Walton of Bentonville, for $21.6 million, according to Hollinger’s August 2004 report to the SEC.

A March 23 story in The New York Times said the Justice Department is conducting a criminal investigation of Black and Radler.

Radler visited Fayetteville in 1996 while Hollinger was negotiating the purchase of the Northwest Arkansas Times.