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Sheldon Silver sentenced to 7 years in prison
The ex-Assembly speaker was found guilty again in a re-trial
Sheldon Silver is heading back to the slammer. The disgraced former speaker of New York’s State Assembly was sentenced to seven years in prison on Friday.
That’s less than the 12 years he was sentenced to previously, the New York Post reported.
Silver was found guilty for a second time in May, after a re-trial. He had appealed his 2015 conviction after a landmark Supreme Court decision changed the definition of what constitutes “official acts” by politicians in corruption cases.
The charges included that he extorted developers Glenwood Management and the Witkoff Group — asking them to direct their tax business to law firm Goldberg & Iryami. Glenwood and Witkoff previously testified they were unaware Silver was receiving a kickback from the fees paid to the firm.
When the agreements were in place, Glenwood and Witkoff were lobbying Silver on real estate matters, including 421a developer tax exemptions. Silver supported the renewal of the program — of which Glenwood was one of the largest recipients in the state — and other policies favorable to developers.
The judge cited Silver’s age, 74, in the sentencing. And she also plans to issue monetary penalties, including a $1.75 million fine, the report said. [NYP] — Meenal Vamburkar