CELLY SILVER PART 2
THIS TIME HE’S REALLY GOING TO JAIL
Corrupt pol guilty AGAIN on all counts
SHELDON SILVER is still guilty
The former Assembly speaker was convicted of seven corruption charges Friday in his Manhattan Federal Court retrial.
The once-powerful Lower East Side pol’s second trial for twin corruption schemes that earned him nearly $4 million was over in a flash. The jury returned its guilty verdicts shortly before 5 p.m. following its first full day of deliberations.
“Sheldon Silver . . . took an oath to act in the best interests of the people of New York State,” said U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman after his office’s legal triumph.
“As a unanimous jury found, he sold his public office for private greed.”
Judge Valerie Caproni set sentencing for July 13, and continued his bail. “You don’t seem like a bail jumping kind of guy,” the judge told Silver at the end of the hearing.
The veteran Democrat spent more than 20 years as the state Assembly speaker, making him one of New York’s three most powerful politicians.
One of the other three, Gov. Cuomo, issued a terse statement after the verdict, saying, “The justice system shows no one is above the law.”
Silver was sentenced to 12 years by Caproni after the first trial. He received a temporary respite in June 2016 when the U.S. Supreme Court altered the rules for instructing juries about political-corruption laws — leading an appeals court to overturn Silver’s conviction last July.
But the second time around was no luckier for Silver.
“I feel disappointed at this point,” he said outside the lower Manhattan courthouse. “I am very confident the judicial process will play out in my favor.”
The retrial took just two weeks, with prosecutors demonstrating how the 74-yearold Silver collected nearly $4 million in illicit payoffs. Former prosecutor Preet Bharara, whose office indicted and first prosecuted Silver, tweeted, “Great work . . . All New Yorkers should be grateful.”
The jury forewoman — who declined to identify herself — was in tears as she left the courthouse. “It was difficult — everything was difficult … I tried my best,” she said.
Jurors heard from 26 witnesses over seven days. They got the case shortly before 5 p.m. Thursday, and deliberated for about 40 minutes before being sent home. They resumed their deliberations on Friday morning.
In closing arguments, the government urged jurors to follow the money.
“This is bribery. This is extortion. This is corruption — the real thing,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Tatiana Martins.
Silver’s lawyer, Michael Feldberg, said Silver did nothing wrong by collecting referral fees from law firms.
“It was legal,” he said. “And even if you think it was unseemly, that is no reason to find Shelly Silver guilty of the crimes charged.”
The jury disagreed, without needing a lot of time to reach their verdicts.
The decision was hardly a shocker, as even the federal appeals judges on Silver’s case acknowledged there was enough evidence to convict him.
It might have been enough for prosecutors to put on exactly the same case they did two years ago. The government instead introduced new witnesses and testimony at the second trial that seemed to enhance its case.
Dr. Robert Taub, a now-retired professor at Columbia medical school, said he referred to Silver some of his patients suffering from mesothelioma, a deadly cancer caused by asbestos, after a mutual friend told him that “Shelly needs cases.”
Silver gave the names to colleagues at the Weitz & Luxenberg law firm, which paid him one-third of the fees it earned from their legal claims. Over time, Silver’s referral fees from the cases totaled more than $3 million, prosecutors said.
Mary Hesdorffer, Taub’s nurse, said she yelled at her boss when she learned he was referring his patients to Silver in return for favors.
Taub received $500,000 in research grants on New York taxpayers’ dime, courtesy of Silver.
“I told (Taub) they would take him out in handcuffs,” she recalled.
Another new witness was Jay Arthur Goldberg, who grew up with Silver on the Lower East Side and has been Silver’s friend for 65 years.
Goldberg, a lawyer, represents real estate owners appealing city property taxes. He said that one day around 1997, Silver summoned him to a meeting at his legislative office downtown and declared: “I think I’m going to be able to refer Glenwood Management.”
Glenwood — one of the city’s biggest real estate developers, specializing in high-rise luxury rentals — paid Goldberg handsomely for its successful tax appeals.
Goldberg turned over 25% of the fees Glenwood paid to Silver as a referral fee. Several years later, Silver helped Goldberg land a deal with another developer, The Witkoff Group. Goldberg paid Silver a referral fee of 15% of what he earned from Witkoff.
Prosecutors introduced evidence that Glenwood and Witkoff rely on the state Legislature for favorable rent regulation and housing finance laws — and that Silver was key to them getting what they want.
Silver’s case is the latest in a string of corruption cases brought by Manhattan federal prosecutors.
In June, former Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos and his son Adam are to be retried on graft charges. Their convictions in December 2015 were also thrown out by an appeals court.