Former New York Senate leader Dean Skelos gets 5 years in corruption case
For the second time in little more than week, a former New York legislative leader and attorney has been sentenced to prison time in a corruption case.
On Thursday, a federal judge in Manhattan sentenced former New York Senate majority leader Dean Skelos, 68, to five years behind bars and gave his son, Adam Skelos, 33, a six-and-a-half-year prison term, the Albany Times Union and Reuters report.
The father, a Republican, must also pay a $500,000 fine, and the two men together are required to forfeit a little over $334,000.
None of the criminal charges against Dean Skelos, an attorney, were related to his work with a Uniondale law firm where he was previously of counsel.
By contrast, former New York Assembly speaker Sheldon Silver, a Democrat, who got a 12-year sentence last week in another federal corruption case, was found to have misused his legislative position to get millions of dollars in law firm referral fees. He was disbarred as a result of his conviction.
Neither Skelos nor Silver will lose their state pensions, the Times Union article notes.
Related coverage:
ABAJournal.com: “Once-powerful New York lawmaker, an attorney, is convicted on corruption charges”
