Silberman Associate Set to Testify Today

Jack Norman Myers, a Malibu investment banker who recently pleaded guilty to a felony charge connected to an alleged money-laundering ring that prosecutors contend was run by Richard T. Silberman, is due to testify today against the San Diego financier.

Myers, who has been associated with Silberman since both were active political fund-raisers for former Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr., is expected to testify about the transactions that form the basis of the case against Silberman, prosecutors said Wednesday in federal court.

Silberman, 61, a prominent businessman who served as a top aide in the Brown administration, is standing trial on seven counts stemming from allegations he laundered $300,000 that an undercover agent portrayed as the proceeds of Colombian drug trafficking.

If convicted, he faces up to 75 years in prison. His trial, before U.S. District Judge J. Lawrence Irving, is expected to last six weeks.

An announcement by prosecutors that they had scheduled Myers to testify overshadowed the routine matters that were offered Wednesday in the complex case, including testimony from a number of witnesses about the structure of various Silberman companies.

Myers was originally indicted last year with Silberman, accused of being a courier in the alleged laundering scheme. But two weeks ago, a few days before testimony in Silberman’s trial was to begin, Myers pleaded guilty to one criminal count of violating federal currency laws.

Under a plea bargain, Myers agreed to testify against Silberman and to back up his testimony with corroborating documents. In return, prosecutors agreed to dismiss five related charges against Myers and to recommend that he receive a maximum sentence of six months at a minimum-security federal prison.

In announcing that Myers would take the stand today, Assistant U.S. Atty. Charles F. Gorder Jr., the lead prosecutor on the case, also said that the government plans to call only one other witness, FBI agent Charles Walker.

The FBI contends that Silberman confessed immediately upon his arrest in April, 1989, and Walker, the agent who directed the investigation that led to the arrest, is expected to testify about the alleged confession.