Disgraced pol Sheldon Silver should get seven years in prison — same as before his appellate court win, say federal prosecutors
Disgraced ex-Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver deserves seven years in prison for taking illicit legal fees and money laundering, federal prosecutors told a judge Wednesday.
That sentence would be the same as what Manhattan Federal Court Judge Valerie Caproni imposed at Silver’s last sentencing hearing in July 2018, before appeals judges tossed a big part of Silver’s conviction.
“[H]e repeatedly corrupted the power of his office for personal profit and caused severe damage to the public trust,” Assistant US Attorney Daniel Richenthal said in a two-page letter to Caproni dated Wednesday.
Richenthal quoted from a report by federal probation officers. “We believe that the defendant was motivated by greed,” the report says.
“Silver is an example of why the public has lost faith in their elected officials,” the report went on, calling for “a significant sentence to a term of imprisonment.”
Richenthal’s letter says Silver should get the seven-year sentence, or a “substantially similar” term. It also asks Caproni to impose a “substantial” fine. At his last sentencing two years ago, Caproni fined Silver $1.75 million.
Silver, 76, won a third sentencing hearing — now set for July 20 — when a panel of federal appeals judges in January tossed his conviction for taking fees from the Weitz & Luxenberg law firm.
The appeals judges let stand charges that he took money from real estate developers Silver sent to his friend Jay Goldberg’s law firm. Goldberg’s firm specializes in handling property tax appeals.
Whether Silver’s appellate court win will reduce his prison term is an open question. But at his July 2018 sentencing hearing — which followed his second trial — Caproni took some pity on him.
“Visually, he’s aged more than the three years chronologically that have gone by since he was first charged” in 2015, she said.
At a sentencing hearing in May 2016 that followed Silver’s first trial, Caproni sentenced him to 12 years in prison.
Silver’s partial appellate victory in January will likely let him keep more of the money he got from the scheme that led to the criminal charges.
A tentative deal between Silver and prosecutors would slash by $2.38 million the amount of ill-gotten gains Silver must forfeit to the government. Most of that sum represents money Silver got from Weitz & Luxenberg.
Silver got the fees by sending the firm names of mesothelioma patients he obtained from Dr. Robert Taub of Columbia University medical school. Prosecutors charged that Taub gave Silver the names in return for $500,000 in state money for his research work.
Under the deal, Silver would remain responsible for $1.36 million, most of which represents fees he got from Goldberg’s firm.
Silver’s lawyers declined to comment on Richenthal’s letter.
