Sheldon Silver guilty of all 7 corruption charges
Disgraced New York political powerhouse Sheldon Silver was found guilty on all counts of federal corruption charges Monday.
Silver, 71, for years one of New York State’s most powerful politicians, must now automatically forfeit his Assembly seat. They said he secured more than $3 million in referral fees from personal injury claims and made millions more from real estate developers and shady investments.
The American Tort Reform Association annually criticized his efforts to prevent legal reform in the state, culminating in New York City being named by ATRA in December as the jurisdiction most unfair to corporate defendants. He faces a maximum of 130 years behind bars, though he is expected to face a sentence more in the range of 20 years.
Sheldon Silver – the former speaker of the New York State Assembly and a former ex-officio member of Cornell’s Board of Trustees – was convicted on federal corruption charges Monday.
The prosecution was a marquee case in Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara’s quest to clean up what he has called Albany’s “cauldron of corruption”.
Other groups are calling for Gov. Andrew Cuomo to hold a special session in December to focus on passing new anti corruption laws.
Meanwhile, Democratic Assemblyman Sean Ryan of Buffalo said Silver’s downfall should be a clear signal to Albany that both chambers of the state Legislature need to reform rules to severely restrict outside employment. Further allegations include arranging state grants and funds to a physician who in turn referred lucrative patients to Silver’s law firm.
Defense attorney Steven Molo countered that his client fought bribery and extortion charges because he knew he was not guilty.
The judge and lawyers were deciding how to respond to the note in a way that would allow them to learn enough about the conflict to determine whether he could continue to serve.
Goldstein told jurors to reject the defense contention that Silver was just practicing politics as usual. The verdict in Mr. Silver’s trial hands Bharara, whose office has achieved convictions in a string of rank-and-file Albany politicians, his biggest win in that area.
In October, Silver said that he would be “vindicated…in this trial”.
Silver was also charged with steering developers to another law firm in exchange for kickbacks and then supporting rent legislation favored by the developers.