San Diego
San Diego financier Richard T. Silberman, charged with laundering $300,000 in cash purported to be the proceeds of Colombian cocaine profits, is expected to take the stand today in his defense.
Though Silberman’s attorneys plan to call various witnesses, Silberman is in line to testify today, his lead defense lawyer, James J. Brosnahan, said Tuesday after the first full day of the defense’s case in the complex trial.
Silberman, 61, a one-time top aide to former Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr., is charged with laundering $300,000 that an undercover FBI agent had portrayed as the profits of Colombian drug lords. If convicted, he faces up to 75 years in prison.
Before giving way Tuesday to defense attorneys, prosecutors spent the past two weeks presenting 26 witnesses and the details of the two deals at the heart of the case against Silberman. The first, in November, 1988, involved a swap of $100,000 for stock, and the second, in February, 1989, involved an exchange of $200,000 for U.S. Treasury bonds.
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