An Orthodox Jew whose parents were Russian immigrants, Silver has lived all his life on Manhattan's Lower East Side. Sheldon became a lawyer and climbed to 119th Speaker of the New York State Assembly but something happened along the way. On January 22, 2015, Silver was arrested on federal corruption charges. The federal inquiry, which followed the state's abruptly disbanded Moreland Commission to Investigate Public Corruption, focused on large payments that Silver received for years from a law firm that specializes in seeking reductions of New York City real-estate taxes. Investigators led by U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara charged that Silver did not properly disclose the payments from the firm, Goldberg & Iryami, on his annual financial disclosure filings with the state. The firm's major client was the state’s single-largest political donor, while the founding partner Jay Goldberg was Silver's former Assembly counsel, and partner Dara Iryami agreed to testify under immunity. Sheldon received more than $6m from two law firms. This included $700,000 in “bribes and kickbacks” for inducing “real-estate developers with business before the state” to use a particular property law firm; and $5.3m from Weitz and Luxenberg, a law firm that handles personal injury cases.
Mine it's all mine!
A quote from The Buffalo News: The problem—which also exists in the State Senate—can be boiled down to a single overarching issue: The Assembly speaker has too much power. He controls everything, from the legislation that can be voted on to how his normally docile members vote on it. He decides what the Assembly will accept in a state budget. He negotiates secretly with the other two leaders to hammer out important, expensive and far-reaching laws. And he ignores the wishes of less-exalted lawmakers.
This will continue: On July 24, 2015, Judge Valerie Caponi denied another request by Sheldon's attorneys to dismiss the charges, with news accounts indicating that his trial is scheduled to begin on November 2, 2015. Well for Sheldon and crew seems this Hanukkah season is going to blow out some candles. Eight-day Jewish observance that remembers the Jewish people's struggle, not Jewish crooks.
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