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This time, Silver gets 7-year sentence
SILVER continued from p. 1
ternoon, a straw fedora in hand, walking
slowly, and then stood for screening inside
the fi rst fl oor of the august building, his
face somber and showing signs of strain.
Then, with his lawyer and two reporters
tagging along (including this one), Silver,
who had been the most powerful politician
in the New York State Legislature before
his 2015 arrest on corruption charges, took
the elevator up four fl oors and entered the
courtroom of federal Judge Valerie Caproni.
She had sentenced him to 12 years after his
fi rst conviction in 2015.
Back then, Caproni claimed she wanted
to send a message to New York politicians
that they could “spend their golden years in
an orange jumpsuit” if they got greedy and
abused the public trust.
Silver’s fi rst conviction was overturned
on appeal. This time around, Silver was
found guilty again of all seven counts of
honest-services fraud and extortion in a
two-week May trial. Caproni said she had
decided against repeating her fi rst sentence,
stating it was “longer than necessary to accomplish
the goals of sentencing.”
Her second sentence lopped off fi ve years
from the fi rst, giving Silver seven years behind
bars, with incarceration to begin on
Oct. 5. It’s punishment for illicitly obtaining
some $4 million in referral fees from two
Manhattan law fi rms in exchange for promoting
state actions favorable to Dr. Robert
N. Taub, a former Columbia University cancer
researcher who served as the government’s
star witness; and for two real estate
developers, Glenwood Management and the
Witkoff Group, who sought Silver’s support
in obtaining tax legislation. Silver also made
an additional $1 million by investing his illgotten
gains, the government said. Caproni
fi ned him $1.75 million for his felonies and
said he must forfeit at least $3 million.
“This crime was driven by unmitigated
greed,” Caproni said of Silver’s two schemes
involving the law fi rms of Weitz & Luxemberg
and Goldberg & Irami. Weitz & Luxemberg,
which handles mesothelioma cases,
paid Silver $120,000 a year for an alleged
no-show job as counsel, plus some $3 million
for referrals over about a decade, many
coming from the aforementioned Taub,
who received two state healthcare grants
promoted by Silver that totaled $500,000.
Goldberg & Irami, a small Downtown law
fi rm, paid the former speaker nearly $1 million,
according to prosecutors. Jay Goldberg,
one of the fi rm’s founders, had been
Silver’s counsel in the Assembly and is a
childhood friend.
“The bottom line is that Silver wanted to
seem to be a man of the people while using
his public position to line his own pockets,”
Caproni stated.
She rejected a request for leniency by
Michael Fineberg, Silver’s attorney, who requested
that Silver “atone” for his crimes by
a short sentence followed by public service,
helping people navigate the state bureaucracy,
“instead of warehousing him in a facility
where he will wither away forgotten.”
But Caproni clearly tempered justice with
Former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, with his legal defense team, being
escorted out of federal court in Foley Square by U.S. marshals on Fri.,
July 27, after his sentencing on corruption charges.
mercy, after receiving a letter from the former
pol, a prostate cancer survivor, saying
he didn’t want to die in prison, and after reviewing
an outpouring of support for him
from family members, friends and constituents.
She noted that when it came to constituent
service, Silver conducted himself
as a “gifted politician who went beyond the
call of duty many times.”
Her softer sentence surprised some in the
legal community. Manhattan attorney Emily
Jane Goodman, a former New York State
Supreme Court Justice, told The Villager: “I
don’t know why Judge Caproni decided to
soften the blow but it was the right thing
to do. Perhaps that elusive element of empathy
— which is not sympathy and is not
approval — kicked in. Of course she had to
consider many different aspects: the probation
report, input and letters she received,
including from Sheldon Silver himself, his
age and health, and years of public service
despite the inglorious end. And maybe she
saw the facts or strength of the case differently
even though there was another conviction.”
Federal prosecutors from the Southern
District had sought more than 14 years
jail time for Silver, which would have been
the longest sentence for any part-time New
York legislator caught in the crosshairs of
the law. Nevertheless, Geoffrey Berman,
interim U.S. attorney for the Southern District,
a Republican donor to Donald Trump
and a former law partner of Rudolph Giuliani,
said he hoped the “fi ttingly stiff sentence
sends a clear message: Brokering offi -
cial favors for your personal benefi t is illegal
and will result in prison time.”
Throughout the sentencing, which lasted
more than an hour, Silver sat stoically beside
his lawyer Fineberg. At one point, he
rose to tell Caproni, “I ask for your mercy,”
and later said he had “brought great distrust
to New York government. I am extremely,
PHOTO BY TEQUILA MINSKY
extremely remorseful,” he said, adding,
“Going forward, I fear I will continue to be
ridiculed, shamed by the stain upon me.”
His words seemed to refl ect the religious
leanings of Silver, who is an Orthodox Jew.
Several of his friends in court wore yarmulkes
and Rabbi Dovid Feinstein, a neighbor
of Silver and a supporter, addressed the
judge before her sentencing, telling Caproni
that Silver was “not a well man,” and asking
her to remember his contributions to “the
state and to his constituents.”
Silver did not once admit to committing
a crime. Even as the courtroom emptied, he
lingered talking to friends, his wife, Rosa,
nearby. Asked by The Villager if he intended
to appeal, Silver replied softly, “Most
certainly, we will appeal.”
More than another hour passed before
he came down the steps of the courthouse,
holding onto a rail for support after a light
rain had stopped, and announced he would
not be offering any comment. As he headed
toward a waiting car, Silver was immediately
enveloped by a crush of frantic reporters
on deadline. Newsday reported that Silver
had told the paper he “felt fi ne” and didn’t
expect to go to jail as he appealed “the
whole case.”
One lone picket stood not far away, identifying
himself as a 19-year-old Fordham
University student. He held a sign that read,
“Lock him up!”
Silver, who holds a law degree from
Brooklyn College, began his career as an
assemblymember in 1976, rising to become
the Assembly’s speaker in 1994. He remained
in that infl uential position until his
arrest in 2015 when Preet Bharara, former
U.S. attorney for the Southern District, began
prosecuting him aggressively. Silver reportedly
fi rst came under scrutiny of federal
agents for failing to reveal his earnings as a
lawyer as far back as 2006 on state disclo-
SILVER continued on p. 21
4 August 2, 2018 TheVillager.com
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