New York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, who arrested Thursday (CC/ wikimedia.org/ Nyer42)
NEW YORK, Jan. 22 (UPI) -- Sheldon Silver, Speaker of the New York State Assembly, surrendered to FBI agents Thursday after he was indicted on corruption charges.
Silver, 70, a Democrat and arguably the second-most powerful person in New York state politics after Gov. Andrew Cuomo, was accused in a five-count indictment of "using the power and influence of his official position to obtain for himself millions of dollars of bribes and kickbacks masked as legitimate income." It said he allegedly was involved in a scheme "to induce real estate developers with business before the state" to employ a real estate law firm with which he was involved that arranged payments to him for referrals to the firm, adding "There is probable cause to believe that Silver received approximately $4 million in payments characterized as attorney referral fees solely through the corrupt use of his official position."
Prosecutors noted in the complaint that Silver did essentially no work to earn the money.
He is charged with mail fraud, wire fraud and extortion. Prosecutors also seized $3.8 million of his personal funds Thursday.
Silver's 2013 financial disclosure filing indicated he earned at least $650,000 from work for Weitz & Luxenberg, a personal injury law firm. While it is legal for New York state legislators to hold outside jobs, Silver has long refused to offer information regarding his work for the law firm.
A legislator for a Manhattan district with a reputation as a back-room political player, Silver became Assembly speaker in 1994 and is one of the state's notorious "three men in a room," responsible, with the governor and Senate majority leader, for New York State budget negotiations and for its most important legislation.
Republican Assemblyman Dan Stec told the Albany Times-Union, "I'm frustrated that it's gone on this long and he continues to have almost unanimous support. Will this change anything? There's a lot of fear in that (Democratic Assembly) conference, I think. They're afraid to cross him. If he survives, which is possible, then they're finished. There's been a lot of retaliation and retribution before. It's like an abusive relationship."
