Silver lining in his appeal 3 counts nixed, may trim time

An appeals court on Tuesday tossed a big chunk of the corruption case against ex-Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, giving him a chance to argue for a reduction in his seven-year prison sentence.

Silver, 75, once one of the state’s most powerful politicians, won dismissal on three of the seven charges of which he was convicted last year in Manhattan Federal Court. Four of the counts still stand.

The three-judge panel overturned Silver’s conviction on charges he secretly sent $500,000 in state taxpayer money to support research by Dr. Robert Taub, who treated mesothelioma patients at New York-Presbyterian Hospital Columbia.

In return, Taub gave Silver (photo) the names of some of his patients, which Silver handed over to the Manhattan law firm Weitz & Luxenberg. The firm gave Silver one-third of the fees it collected in the cases — which added up over several years to $3.3 million.

In their unanimous 84-page ruling, the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals judges wrote that the mesothelioma scheme did not amount to extortion under federal law. The arrangement between Silver and Taub was “too open-ended” to justify a criminal conviction, the judges said.

The judges also said the scheme didn’t match the definition of honest services fraud — the idea that by taking legal fees and sending state money to Taub’s clinic, Silver deprived the public of his honest services as a public official.

“A public official must do more than promise to take some or any official action beneficial to the payor as the opportunity to do so arises; she must promise to take official action on a particular question or matter as the opportunity to influence that same question or matter arises,” the Appeals Court wrote.

Also, the judges wrote, the key part of the mesothelioma scheme occurred outside the statute of limitations. Silver was indicted in February 2015, and under federal law the indictment could only cover acts that happened after February 2010. But Taub got his last state grants in 2007.

That and other aspects of the scheme led the judges to order the mesothelioma counts of Silver’s indictment to be dismissed “with prejudice” — a total loss for prosecutors.

The judges upheld Silver’s conviction on charges that he secretly took $800,000 in legal fees from real estate developers from 2005 to 2015. Though Silver got much of that money before February 2010, the judges said it was part of an ongoing scheme and thus not affected by the statute of limitations.

In return for that money — mainly from Glenwood Management, which owns luxury apartment buildings in Manhattan and the Bronx — Silver performed a number of favors, including supporting tax breaks and landlord-friendly rent rules under the state’s 2011 Rent Act and voting in favor of Glenwood’s applications for tax-exempt financing of its projects.

Silver was also convicted on charges of money laundering.

Two Manhattan Federal Court juries convicted Silver of all seven counts in his indictment.

Silver’s first conviction in November 2015 led Judge Valerie Caproni to sentence him to 12 years in prison and two years of supervised release. That conviction was overturned in July 2017.

After his second conviction in May 2018, Caproni sentenced Silver to seven years in prison and three years of supervised release. Because of Tuesday’s court ruling, Silver could get a new sentencing hearing.

But lawyers’ next moves in the case were unclear Tuesday. Federal prosecutors had no immediate comment on the ruling. Silver’s appellate lawyer could not immediately be reached.

As speaker of the state Assembly from 1994 to 2015, Silver — elected from a district in lower Manhattan — was one of the “three men in a room” who decided most important state government issues. He was first elected to the Assembly in 1976 and held his seat until his conviction at his first trial in November 2015.