#Sheldon Silver sentenced to more than 6 years in prison for bribery scheme

Enlarge Image

Sheldon Silver (center) leaves court after his sentencing.
Stefan Jeremiah

Crooked ex-pol Sheldon Silver, known as Albany’s powerbroker during his decades-long reign, was sentenced Monday to 6½ years in federal prison.

Judge Valerie Caproni handed down the sentence Monday afternoon in front of Silver, 76, who was ordered to appear in person in the courtroom despite an effort by his lawyers to hold the hearing remotely amid the coronavirus pandemic.

“This was corruption pure and simple,” Caproni told the disgraced ex-speaker of the New York state Assembly, whom she had already sentenced twice. She also imposed a $1 million fine.

Before the term was handed down, Silver briefly addressed the court.

“I was so angry with myself and still am. But now that anger has mainly turned to sadness,” he said in a feeble voice. “My use of my office for personal gain was improper, selfish and ethically indefensible.”

Silver’s lawyers had pushed for a “substantial term of home confinement” and community service in light of the pandemic.

They argued that given Silver’s advanced age and poor health, he was at “very serious risk” if he contracts the virus in custody.

“He doesn’t deserve a premature death or to die in prison,” the lawyer said.

The sentencing ends a years-long battle by Silver, once the most powerful politician in Albany, to avoid prison after being twice convicted by a jury on all counts related to corrupt kickback schemes he ran while in office.

The fallen kingmaker’s first conviction was fully overturned in 2017 after an appeals court ruled the jury instructions in the trial did not meet a new definition of corruption that had been adopted by the Supreme Court.

Silver, a Democrat from the Lower East Side, was retried, convicted on all counts and sentenced to seven years in prison in 2018 for accepting nearly $4 million in bribes in two separate schemes.

He remained free on bail while appealing the ruling — but earlier this year, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals upheld his conviction on four of the charges.

In its opinion, a panel of three Second Circuit Court judges unanimously affirmed that Silver had illegally used his office to benefit two real estate developers in exchange for cash.

“The Real Estate Scheme presents a significantly different factual scenario that more closely resembles classic bribery‐based crimes,” wrote Judge Richard Wesley on behalf of the panel.

In the scheme, Silver allegedly steered the real estate developers, Glenwood Management and the Witkoff Group, to do tax business with a law firm that gave Silver hundreds of thousands of dollars.

In exchange, Silver backed legislation that benefited real estate developers, including provisions to 2011 rent legislation that were specifically tailored to benefit Glenwood.

In the charges that were vacated, prosecutors alleged that Silver directed the state health department to steer $500,000 in grants to Columbia University cancer doctor Robert Taub.

Taub then agreed to refer mesothelioma patients to Weitz & Luxenberg, a law firm where Silver worked. Silver allegedly gained millions of dollars from the scheme, but the convictions were thrown out since the bulk of the corrupt activity was outside the statute of limitations.

For the misconduct that wasn’t time-barred, the panel ruled that prosecutors had failed to sufficiently prove a quid pro quo.