Posted on 11/30/2015 1:37:07 PM PST by SeekAndFind
Sheldon Silver has gone from one of Albany's famed "three men in a room" to one of 198,000 people in federal lockup.
A jury found the 71-year-old former Assembly Speaker guilty on all seven corruption charges Tuesday, sending a powerful message to politicians in New York's capital.
Judge Valerie Caproni will set the date of his surrender. He faces a maximum of 130 years behind bars, though he is expected to face a sentence more in the range of 20 years.
The verdict is a major victory for Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, who slammed Albany as "a cauldron of corruption" when he announced charges against the Lower East Side democrat in January.
"Today, Sheldon Silver got justice, and at long last, so did the people of New York," the U.S. Attorney's office said in a statement after the verdict was revealed.
Over three weeks the government presented ample evidence of Silver's efforts to conceal twin corruption schemes that earned him $4 million.
Silver, the former state Assembly Speaker, was accused of two separate schemes. In the first, prosecutors said he secretly directed $500,000 in state money to Columbia University Dr. Robert Taub's mesothelioma research. The decorated doctor testified that he gave Silver leads on his patients who were suffering from the deadly effects of asbestos exposure. The Lower East Side democrat then directed those patients to the firm Weitz & Luxenberg, which paid Silver $3 million in referral fees.
(Excerpt) Read more at nydailynews.com ...
Had to search for the truth... the guy’s a Democrat. If he had been a Republican it would have been in the first sentence....
Gee. I hope not.
That would break my heart.
:)
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