Lawmaker is federally indicted over $3.7M in claimed payments by law firms
Photo of Sheldon Silver from the New York State Assembly
Updated: A longtime New York state legislative leader was federally indicted Thursday on fraud and extortion charges concerning some $3.7 million in payments that he allegedly received from two law firms.
In addition to serving, until recently, as the speaker of the New York Assembly, Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan, also is a practicing attorney. He is accused of wrongfully accepting $3 million in payments from Weitz & Luxenberg and another $700,000 from a second law firm, identified by a defense lawyer as Goldberg & Iryami, in situations that allegedly involved the misuse by Silver of his government influence, according to the Journal News, the New York Times (reg. req.) and Reuters.
Charged with honest services mail fraud, honest services wire fraud and using his office for extortion, Silver maintains his innocence. He has stepped down from his position as speaker but continues to serve as an assemblyman.
Silver allegedly received money from the Weitz firm, which has since cut ties with him, for asbestos-case clients referred by a physician to whom the lawmaker had directed some $500,000 in state research funding. He is accused of getting another $700,000 from the Goldberg firm in exchange for steering to it real estate clients with business before the state legislature.
Neither law firm is accused of wrongdoing and it is a standard practice for law firms to pay referral fees to outside attorneys who send business their way. “The indictment makes it crystal clear that Weitz & Luxenberg had no knowledge of and played no role in Mr. Silver’s alleged scheme and paid no kickbacks to him,” the firm says in a written statement provided to the ABA Journal. “In fact, it explicitly states that Mr. Silver ‘kept secret from attorneys at Weitz & Luxenberg that he had allocated state funding to Doctor-1.’ It also says that, in his of-counsel role, Mr. Silver was ‘entitled to receive’ compensation for referring clients to the firm.”
Silver is represented by attorneys Joel Cohen and Steven Molo. who plan to defend aggressively. “We can now begin to fight for his total vindication,” they said in a written statement provided to the Times. “We will do our fighting where it should be done: in court.”
Contacted by the ABA Journal, the Goldberg firm referred a request for comment to attorney Michael Ross. He did not immediately respond to a phone message on Thursday afternoon.
Related coverage:
ABAJournal.com: “Top NY lawmaker prosecuted over $3M asbestos-case referral fees exits speaker post and law firm role”
Updated at 5:30 p.m. to include Weitz law firm statement.
