Ex-New York assembly speaker Silver indicted on corruption charges

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A grand jury returned an indictment of Sheldon Silver, the former New York State Assembly speaker, for federal corruption charges on Thursday, federal prosecutors said.

Will Silver bring down Cuomo in the corruption of NY State Democratic Party politics? I surely hope so....

The prosecutor who nailed Silver---Preet Bharara--- was incensed when Gov Cuomo abruptly shut down the Moreland Commission when it got too close to nailing Albany's public corruption.

Cuomo is now described as “obsessed with fear’’ in the wake of corruption charges against ousted Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver..... already known for a confrontational style, some say Cuomo is suffering from “Post-Silver Stress Disorder” ......

Known as a bully, “Cuomo appears to be engaged in a sort of overcorrection," a prominent Big Apple Democrat said. “Cuomo’s a typical control freak. Once things start to go awry and he loses control, he panics, overreacts and makes mistakes."

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FBI TIPS PAGE--YOU MAY REMAIN ANONYMOUS ---https://tips.fbi.gov

One report confirmed what has long been recognized — that Cuomo’s Empire State Development Corp.---a govt agency---offers few details to the public to justify its billions of dollars in grants.....(such as where they're going?)

Cuomo has been scamming since his days at HUD---reprtedly $18 million went missing under his watch.

STEALTH HOUSING GRANTS NOT A COINCIDENCE Cuomo is Bill Clinton's appointee to head HUD---a federal agency known for rank corruption.

In 2008, the Village Voice published a compelling report detailing Andrew Cuomo's policy decisions "that gave birth to the country's current crisis."

The report touched on how Cuomo's 187-page rules "opened the door to abuse." The rules explicitly rejected the idea of imposing any new reporting requirements on the GSEs. In other words, HUD wanted Fannie and Freddie to buy risky loans, but the department didn't want to hear just how risky they were.

Cuomo got lucky-- New York voters were distracted by his gubernatorial opponent's racist jokes; and failed to see the actual harm to the minority community directly caused by Cuomo's policies..

Cuomo's top aide said, "We believe that there are a lot of loans to black Americans that could be safely purchased by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac if these companies were more flexible."

NOT TO MENTION MASSIVE BAILOUTS W/ OUR TAX DOLLARS Andrew Cuomo doubled down and had this to say about his HUD standards, "GSE presence in the subprime market could be of significant benefit to lower-income families, minorities, and families living in underserved areas."

How's that working out for the minority community, where foreclosures and unemployment rates have hit the hardest as a result of such failed policies and blatant social engineering?

SOURCE http://voices.yahoo.com/cuomos-social-engineering-as-hud-chief-contributed-7077218.html

CRAIN'S: Silver arrest lengthens shadow over major nonprofit / By Theresa Agovino and Emily Laermer

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver pictured with former Met Council
CEO William Rapfogel (now jailed). / Photo by: Met Council

The criminal charges engulfing Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver are a blow to a tax-funded organization with which he had deep ties: the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty. The Met Council has been struggling since its former CEO, William Rapfogel, was sentenced last year to up to 10 years in prison for embezzling $9 million from the group.

Mr. Silver was longtime friends with Mr. Rapfogel, who was employed there for 20 years---Rapfogel's wife, Judy, is Mr. Silver's chief of staff. Silver was responsible for getting the organization millions of dollars in state funding----Silver was a centerpiece at the Met Council's annual legislative breakfast, a must-attend event for the politically connected---looking for voting blocs.

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BACKSTORY The Met Board terminated Mr. Rapfogel immediately after his crimes were unveiled.

Rapfogel earned $400,000 in salary and benefits, according to the organization’s tax returns. The Met Council provides a host of services and is subsidized by taxpayers via govt funding.

Silver drove millions in state grants to the agency. Now, arranging govt funding for an agency run by your chief of staff’s husband would strike most people as a blatant conflict of interest. But not in Shelly Silver’s Albany---it’s just business as usual.

Rapfogel allegedly engaged in a money-laundering scam in which Met funds were used to buy insurance policies from Century Coverage insurance company at inflated prices. The allegation is that the excess amounts were either kicked back to Rapfogel or channeled by insurance officials into political contributions.

Thanks to Silver, Rapfogel was able to use his wife's political connections to build Met Council into a social-service empire. The council received $16.5 million in state funds and another $10 million from the NY City Council since 2009.

Mrs Rapfogel has never been charged---even though some say its odd she did not know where all the household money was coming from...including a $100,000 wedding gift to their son.

THE POLITICAL SHYSTERS PROFIT---TAXPAYERS PAY AND PAY---Here's how one aspect of the criminal combine operation.

Sheldon Silver spun the bombings of 9/11---and resultant lawsuits---into gold.

Ground Zero workers are on the hook to pay steep interest on money their lawyers borrowed from a group of investors that include Silver and his law partners, The NY Post reported.

Silver's law partners at the Weitz & Luxenberg law firm are top board members of a business that quietly loaned money at 18 percent a year to the law firm representing some 9,800 Ground Zero workers with toxic-illness suits against the city.

Silver personally invested an undisclosed sum -- said to be at least $50,000 -- in Counsel Financial Services, a Buffalo-based attorney-funding company that gives four-year loans and lines of credit up to $10 million to law firms with cases expected to hit the jackpot. (Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com

Silver knows plenty .......if he rats out Cuomo and the crooked Albany Dems....he'll need protection..... maybe send him to Israel to live out his life....

That's a distinct possibility.

Now Silver is apparently tacitly agreeing to a $4 million scam---that's b/c jailtime is predicated on the amt of the scam.

However, Silver's been scamming for 21 years....the wealth he accumulated must be huge.

L/E needs to determine how much Silver--- the devout Orthodox---secreted in Israeli banks---Israel is the only place in the world where an individual can fly-in, go to a bank w/ a suitcase full of cash, and nobody asks where it came from or whether taxes were paid on it.

Israel was designated the world's top money-laundering haven. But Israel did not wast to bear this onus---and tried to change its laws to prevent money-laundering. However, powerful Orthodox political parties prevented the changes.

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Silver has been characterized as living simply---giving no indication of his vast wealth. Could be b/c he also profits from being a "disadvantaged minority."

NOTE PBS-TV ran the series on "Orthodox in America". Since the days of LBJ, Orthodox were designated "disadvantaged minorities" by the us govt and given privileged access to multiple US govt giveaway programs.

Oftentimes news organs run stories about competing Orthodox groups fighting among themselves---but the internecine warfare is all about which sect controls the millions of our tax dollars that flow to the "disadvantaged minorities." Vote-crazed politicians trip all over themselves to side with one sect or the other.

Silver was also closely associated w/ a n/p Orthodox social service group---delivering millions in state grants. These n/p are known for chicanery----scamming and skimming off millions for themselves. (More on this above)

Sheldon Silver’s wealth a well-kept secret / By Danika Fears, 1/23/15, NY POST

Silver's humble New York City home. / Photo: Stefan Jeremiah; Paul Martinka

EDITED EXCERPT Silver is accused of raking in millions in bribes and kickbacks, but Silver’s thriftiness might be why feds were able to seize funds from eight of his accounts at six separate banks.

He and Mrs. Silver, who used to work as a special-needs schoolteacher at PS 199, own a country getaway in the Catskills bought for $106,000 in 1990, records show---before he became speaker in 1994.

Now ousted when it got too hot---Silver had a lucrative $4.5 million annual association with high-profile law firm Weitz & Luxemberg..... and he owns stocks in more than 70 firms, including Anheuser-Busch, Facebook and Citigroup, according to 2013nfinancial statements. He also had cash in a venture-capital fund, Lerer Ventures, that financed the BuzzFeed news website.

He planned to retire with between $1.78 million and $2.32 million in pension and deferred compensation.

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