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Sheldon Silver sentenced to 12 years in prison for corruption

Former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver leaving federal court at the end of last year after being found guilty on all counts in his corruption trial.  File photo by Jefferson Siegel
Former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver leaving federal court at the end of last year after being found guilty on all counts in his corruption trial. File photo by Jefferson Siegel

BY LINCOLN ANDERSON | Former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver was sentenced to a dozen years in prison Tuesday afternoon in connection with his conviction last year on federal corruption charges.

Judge Valerie Caproni meted out the stiff sentence.

The longtime former Lower Manhattan Democrat was one of New York’s most powerful politicians for the past two decades, and represented Lower Manhattan’s 65th Assembly District for 40 years.

Silver was convicted of taking $5 million in kickbacks in total through two schemes, one involving asbestos patients’ lawsuits, the other real estate development.

On Tuesday, Silver was not remanded to custody and sent directly to jail. His attorneys plan to appeal his convictions — he was found guilty on seven separate counts.

Two candidates who plan to run for Silver’s former seat in the September Democratic primary quickly blasted out e-mail statements after the sentencing.

“Today, the era of Sheldon Silver is over,” District Leader Paul Newell said. “While this is a sad day for Lower Manhattan and a sad day for New York, it also presents an opportunity for change. Now the real work of ending Albany’s culture of corruption can begin. Our goal should be not to purge a few bad actors, but to end it — for good.

“Political graft like that which Silver was convicted of is not just a personal failure,” Newell said. “It impoverishes us all. The costs of corruption are higher rents, higher taxes, underfunded schools and crumbling subways.

“In Lower Manhattan and across New York State, people are ready for a new kind of leadership. Our neighborhoods need real infrastructure investment, stronger tenant protections, more and better schools, and an honest voice in Albany.”

Yuh-Line Niou, who ran in the special election for the 65th A.D. seat last month, said, “Today’s sentencing of former Speaker Silver to 12 years in prison and over $6 million in restitution is an appropriate punishment that sends a clear message to Albany that the culture of corruption that continues to fester in our state government must end. Mr. Silver’s crime and corruption permanently harmed our community, and we may never know the full extent of the damage that he caused to New York’s rent laws while on the take of developers and landlords.

“With this sentencing,” Niou said, “I hope Albany will find the integrity and political will to finally strip pensions from corrupt officials and clean up our broken ethics and campaign finance laws to give the taxpayers of our great state the honest government they deserve.”

Niou, running on the Working Families Party line, finished second to the Democratic nominee and new assemblymember, Alice Cancel, in the special election. About a half-dozen or more candidates will be running in the September primary.

Cancel was sworn into office in Albany on Monday.

West Village District Leader Arthur Schwartz, who is running for Assembly against incumbent Deborah Glick, wrote a letter to the judge calling for give Silver the maximum on each charge.

He also urged her to strip Silver of his $79,000 annual pension.

“To do less,” Schwartz said, “would be to allow him to benefit, while in prison, from the position of trust which he took unconscionable advantage of.”