Silberman Is Unshakable About Threats : Trial: The financier insists he went through with illegal deals because his family was threatened, but admits that he didn’t notify police.

Sticking to his story despite the prosecution’s relentless inquiry, San Diego financier Richard T. Silberman insisted Thursday that he participated in the second of the two deals at the heart of his money-laundering trial solely because a government informer threatened his family.

Silberman conceded, however, that he did not tell police or his wife, San Diego County Supervisor Susan Golding, about the alleged threats by informer Robert Benjamin. And, when he was arrested, he did not tell FBI agents that he had been pressured into the deal, he admitted.

Silberman, who once served as a top aide to former Gov. Edmund G. Brown, also acknowledged that he heard the key undercover FBI agent in the case, Peter Ahearn, tell him shortly before the second deal went through that Ahearn’s cash came from Colombian drug lords. The deal went forward, although Silberman claimed Thursday that he was just “playing along.”

During a full day of cross-examination, Silberman fought against his own words, which had been secretly recorded by the FBI on dozens of tapes. He was contentious and combative on the witness stand, his testimony often clashing with what the tapes said.

Silberman, 61, is standing trial on seven felony counts. He is charged with laundering $300,000 in cash that was portrayed as narcotics by Ahearn--posing as Pete Carmassi, a front man for Colombian drug traffickers.

A prominent San Diego businessman, Silberman was arrested in April, 1989, immediately after leaving a Mission Bay hotel room where prosecutors contend he was negotiating a third money-laundering deal.

If convicted, Silberman faces up to 75 years in prison.

In his second day of testimony in his own defense, Silberman returned briefly to the first of the two deals in the case, which he had discussed at length on Wednesday. The first transaction involved a November, 1988, swap of $100,000 for stock in a Silberman gold mine subsidiary, Yuba American Gold.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Charles F. Gorder Jr., the lead prosecutor in the case, asked Thursday whether there were any Yuba records indicating that Ahearn, to whom a Yuba stock certificate was delivered, actually was a shareholder. Silberman said there were none.

The bulk of Silberman’s testimony on Thursday centered on Benjamin, who is scheduled to testify today. Silberman said Benjamin called him twice and pressured him into going through with the second deal, which evolved into a February, 1989, exchange of $200,000 for U.S. Treasury bonds.

The first call came on Jan. 5, 1989, Silberman said. In what Silberman called a “very loud, very scary and very threatening voice,” Benjamin allegedly said, “We know your wife. We know where you live. We know about your kids. If you don’t want any harm, you’re going to do this deal.”

Gorder asked why Silberman did not report the call to police and wondered whether Silberman had not thought that Golding’s position and influence might cause officers to “jump on it.”

“They might have,” Silberman said. “They might not have. I knew the first thing that would happen is that they would tell my wife.”

Silberman said he did not want Golding to find out about the call or the first deal.

“I felt I had done something stupid to get in this mess, and I didn’t want her to know,” he said.

On Jan. 6, the day after the call from Benjamin, Silberman talked with Ahearn but did not mention the threats. “I was afraid to,” Silberman said.

“I was wanting to be very, very careful in this conversation, to see if he knew about (Benjamin’s) phone call,” Silberman said. “I didn’t want to abruptly cut Ahearn off because I was afraid (Benjamin) would be activated.”

Silberman did not explain what “activated” meant.

Gorder suggested that Silberman was simply eager for more business. According to the tape of the Jan. 6 call, Silberman asked if he and Ahearn could follow up with a meeting the next week.

“I wanted to make it clear I wasn’t cutting off any deals,” Silberman said Thursday. “I wanted him to tell Benjamin, ‘We got this guy sucked in.’ ”

Silberman said Thursday that he was frightened and avoided Ahearn from Jan. 6 through 27. But he also contradicted himself, saying that, during that period, after he “got very nervous,” he once called Ahearn and left a message for him.

Despite the purported threat, Silberman told Gorder he hired no bodyguards. But, he said, “I took a lot more precautions myself. I took a lot more interest in where the kids were every day, made sure the dogs were fed and the gates locked.”

In the meantime, on Feb. 4, Silberman testified, Benjamin called again, saying, “You know, you’re stalling. I told you, we know all about your family and your wife. When you talk to Ahearn, you just do what he tells you to do.”

On Feb. 7, according to the tapes, Silberman told Ahearn in a phone call that he had “some pressures.” But the tapes indicate he immediately followed that by saying “they’re not life-and-death pressures.”

It was in that same call that Ahearn told Silberman the cash came from “a bunch . . . of Colombian cocaine drug lords,” according to the tapes.

“I may have heard something like that,” Silberman said. “But whatever (Ahearn) said all through the 7th made no sense, and I didn’t believe any of it.”

Also in that call, Ahearn told Silberman, “I’m definitely not going to do it,” referring to a second deal, “if you don’t want to do it.”

The conversation continued for 24 more pages in a transcript of the tape. On the tape, Silberman bragged about how “unique” his system was and said, “No one has ever written us up in the newspaper.”

“All I wanted to do was keep the conversation going until I could figure out what to do with Benjamin,” Silberman testified Thursday.

He added, “I had no idea what (Ahearn’s) business was, whatever he said made no sense, and I was just playing along with him.”

Two weeks later, the second deal began when Ahearn delivered the cash.

By then, Silberman said, he was convinced that Ahearn was merely “looking to make money for himself by taking advantage of me.”

Gorder asked how that could be, given that the $200,000 deal was set to involve $24,000 in commissions, leaving Ahearn with what was supposed to be $176,000 worth of bonds. “He seemed to have a way to do it,” Silberman said.

“The only reason I sold him bonds was I thought at the time, and it was a mistake, that, if I did this one deal with him, it would get rid of these guys.”

The value of the bonds that were delivered was shy anywhere from $30,000 to $50,000, Gorder said. Silberman, he contended, opted for a third deal, which was to be for about $1 million, but in which commissions would be cut to make up for the shortfall.

Silberman said Benjamin suggested the third deal. And he stressed that he was never involved in “negotiations” with Ahearn about a subsequent transaction, only “discussions.”