Silver Found Guilty Of Corruption

Silver, a Democrat, stepped down from his leadership post after his January arrest.

Ex-Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver has been found guilty on all counts in a federal corruption trial.

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The jury has reached a verdict in the federal corruption trial of former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, officials say.

The former legislator was found guilty on all seven charges brought against him for taking $4 million in bribes and kickbacks since 2000. The once mighty political force had been reduced to a new role of poster child for the pay-to-lay culture that has long cast a dark shadow of the Albany political landscape.

Silver was accused of steering state funds to Dr. Robert Taub, who headed a mesothelioma research facility at Columbia University until Silver’s arrest.

Silver faces up to 130 years in prison as he awaits sentencing by a U.S. judge. The defense said Silver was a pro-tenant advocate who was doing favors for friends, who wanted his good will. The prosecution said he was in the pocket of real estate developers and he used his office to make millions of dollars for himself. Silver, who represented Manhattan’s Lower East Side, will automatically lose his office after his conviction. In exchange, the doctor referred asbestos cases to the law firm Weitz & Luxenberg, where Silver worked as a private attorney, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors said Silver delivered tax-abatement and rent-control legislation that favored developers while big developers hired a small law firm that secretly sent $700,000 in fees to the ex-speaker. The verdict may change how state lawmakers operate. New transparency requirements also dissuaded Silver from giving Taub any more money, prosecutors said.

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. The reform advocates re-iterated their call following Silver’s conviction. Instead, he said, “It was by Sheldon Silver for Sheldon Silver”. Neither Silver nor his attorneys could immediately be reached for comment on the verdict. Bharara estimated that two-thirds of Silver’s income outside his political career has come from illegal activity over the past 13 years. Dean Skelos, also at the hands of Bharara, are among New York’s highest-profile public-corruption trials in decades.