New
York assembly ex-speaker Silver indicted on corruption charges
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[February 20, 2015]
By Jonathan Allen
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A grand jury indicted
Sheldon Silver, the former New York State Assembly speaker and one of
the state's most powerful politicians for two decades, on federal
corruption charges on Thursday, federal prosecutors said.
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Silver, who resigned as speaker after his arrest last month but
remains the assemblyman for Manhattan's Lower East Side, was
indicted on one count of honest services mail fraud, one count of
honest services wire fraud and one count of using his office for
extortion.
Silver's lawyers said in a statement on Thursday he was not guilty.
"We can now begin to fight for his total vindication," Joel Cohen
and Steven Molo, Silver's lawyers, said in a statement. "We intend
to do that fighting where it should be done: in court."
The office of Preet Bharara, the U.S. attorney in Manhattan,
originally charged Silver with five counts relating to bribery and
kickback schemes on Jan. 22. It was not immediately clear why two of
the counts, both of them conspiracy charges, appear to have been
dropped.
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A spokeswoman for Bharara did not respond to a request for comment.
The indictment returned on Thursday did not appear to contain new
information about the schemes Silver is accused of running.
As speaker, Silver, 71, was generally considered one of the three
most powerful political figures in the state, along with the
governor and the majority leader of the state's Senate, who among
them controlled the budget and lawmaking processes.
Silver, a lawyer who became speaker in 1994, had long listed New
York personal injury firm Weitz & Luxenberg on his financial
disclosure forms as a source of income for representing its clients
in cases.
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The indictment said he used that position to mask bribes and
kickbacks, including more than $3 million earned for referring
asbestos sufferers to the firm from a doctor whose medical research
had secretly received $500,000 in state funds at Silver's direction,
as well as other benefits.
Silver kept secret from Weitz & Luxenberg the state funding he had
organized for the doctor, the indictment said.
Prosecutors said Silver also received $700,000 in kickbacks by
steering real estate developers with business before the Legislature
to another law firm, identified by its defense lawyer as Goldberg &
Iryami.
(Reporting by Jonathan Allen; Editing by Frank McGurty and Peter
Cooney)
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