Corrupt Democrat Criminal Sheldon Silver has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for the crimes of mail fraud, wire fraud, extortion, and money-laundering.
On top of the prison time, Democrat Criminal Sheldon Silver will also be forced to surrender about $5.2 million of his dirty money, and has been hit with another $1.75 million in fines.
Sheldon Silver is just one of the Democrat politician criminals who are currently doing the exact same thing, but just haven’t been caught yet.
We need to rid our government of all of the greedy, self-serving losers who have infiltrated our government, and continually use our own tax money to enrich themselves and their friends, while fucking the American taxpayer in the ass.
Corrupt ex-Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver was slammed with 12 years behind bars Tuesday — after the judge questioned whether the disgraced pol traded his clout for sexual favors.
Silver — one of the most powerful politicians in the state before his arrest last year — was convicted of netting more than $5 million in kickbacks in business schemes. But the feds have said they also uncovered evidence of the long-married Silver keeping two mistresses, including a lobbyist and former beauty-queen assemblywoman.
“Did a lobbyist have preferred access because she was a better lobbyist than her competitors, or was it payback for a personal relationship?” Manhattan federal Judge Valerie Caproni said before sentencing Silver.
“Those sorts of doubts end up corroding trust in government, and that, Mr. Silver, is discernible harm to the people of New York,” the judge scolded.
In addition to the prison term, Caproni ordered Silver to fork over nearly $5.2 million of his ill-gotten gains and another $1.75 million in fines.
The disgraced ex-pol received two prison terms: 12 years for the six criminal counts against him, including mail and wire fraud and extortion, and another 10 years on a seventh count involving money-laundering. The terms will run concurrently.
Silver must surrender to begin serving his sentence July 1.
“Without question, I let down my constituents, I let down my family, let down my colleagues, and I’m truly, truly sorry for that,” Silver insisted to the judge, speaking briefly before he was sentenced.
He kept his head lowered as his sentence was rendered and then briefly closed his eyes. His wife, Rosa, remained stoic.
Meanwhile, Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bharara stood in the back of the courtroom to watch the sensational case — spearheaded by his office — play out.
“Today’s stiff sentence is a just and fitting end to Sheldon Silver’s long career of corruption,” Bharara later said in a statement.
Before sentencing, the judge appeared somewhat sympathetic to Silver, saying, “I have to agree with the defense that the letters [in support of Silver] clearly … paint a picture of a gifted politician who went above and beyond call of duty many times for friends, friends of friends and for constituents.”
“Some do it better than others. It is clear that you did it quite well,” she told Silver.
Yet “Silver’s corrupt actions cast a shadow over everything he has done and has thrown into doubt any difficult decision any legislator has made,” she said.
“Did Silver do things just to be nice — or did he do things because somewhere there was something in it for him?” the judge said.
A Manhattan federal jury found Silver guilty in November of abusing his power for more than a decade in exchange for bribes and kickbacks.
Silver, 72, faced as much as 27 years in prison for his crimes, but federal prosecutors told the judge they simply wanted Silver to serve out a longer sentence than any New York legislator.
Ex-Assemblyman William Boyland Jr. has held that title since 2015, when he was sentenced to 14 years.
When it came to Silver, there were “no excuses, just pure greed — and then he tried to hide his crime proceeds by investing them,” Assistant US Attorney Carrie Cohen told Caproni before sentencing.
The feds slammed Silver’s earlier apology letter to the court.
“Instead of accusing the government of trying to harm him and his reputation by quote ‘choosing to focus its spotlight on him,’ he could’ve admitted he himself is to blame for the investigation and the conviction and the prosecution that revealed the truth and resulted in his downfall,” said Assistant US Attorney Howard Master.
“After all, he is the one who put himself there.”
But Caproni warned before sentencing, “Let me tell you now, I’m not going to impose a guideline sentence in this case. I think imposing a guideline sentence would be draconian … given this defendant’s age.”
Silver’s lawyers had requested community service and home confinement, citing his history of good works and his recently diagnosed prostate cancer.
Silver’s brother, Joseph, died of prostate cancer at age 70 and their dad died of it at 80 years old, his lawyers said.
In pleading for leniency, Silver’s lawyers submitted dozens of letters from constituents, childhood friends and long-time neighbors.
Silver’s son and three daughters told the judge about their modest upbringing, and his wife, a former schoolteacher, talked about her fear that he will be sick and alone in jail.
One of his lawyers, Steven Cohen, in arguing for a light sentence, told Caproni on Tuesday, “If there’s going to be an incarceration, what is really needed to serve the purpose here? What is the benefit that is truly rendered to society?”
Another Silver lawyer, Joel Cohen, added, “Whatever leniency we have from you, your honor, he has already been crushed. He has been devastated by everything.
“His obituary has already been written about … notwithstanding everything he has done.”
After three days of deliberation, the Manhattan federal jury found that Silver accepted $3 million in improper payments from the law firm Weitz & Luxenberg, despite doing no legal work.
Instead, Silver was paid based off his cozy relationship with a Columbia University doctor, who received $500, 000 in state funds to finance his research into mesothelioma, a cancer caused by asbestos. In exchange, the doctor referred asbestos patients to Weitz & Luxenberg, which then paid Silver.
The jury also found that the Lower East Side resident earned $700,000 from a separate law firm after hooking them up with a pair of lucrative real-estate-developer clients. While receiving money from the developers, Silver took state actions that benefited them.
The government has already blocked Silver from access to $3.8 million in assets spread across eight different bank and investment accounts. On top on that, the ex-Assemblyman has amassed a net worth in excess of $2 million, including “readily liquid assets of more than $1 million,” the government said in a recent filing.
Plus, there’s his taxpayer-funded pension. On the day after the jury rendered its guilty verdict, Silver applied to New York State to receive a pension of $5,846 a month, or more than $70,000 per year for the rest of his life.
Just minutes before his sentencing, the judge issued a ruling denying Silver’s motion for a new trial.
“Silver does not offer any new arguments for the Court to consider … and instead rehashes old arguments that were appropriately rejected’’ at trial, Judge Caproni wrote. “There was sufficient evidence to sustain each of the convictions.’’
Stand Up To Government Corruption and Hypocrisy – usbacklash.org