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After the Guilty Verdict: Silver’s Pension and Many Accomplices

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Former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver was convicted of corruption last week but soon after filed for his state pension.

Merely a day after having been convicted of corruption last Monday, former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver immediately filed his retirement papers reports New York Post.

It is not an illegitimate course of action, however, for under the state Constitution, he can still collect his pension. According to a source, in Mr. Silver’s case, that is approximately $100,000 a year. Public pensions are constitutionally protected assets that cannot be seized, regardless of what the pensioners former actions.

According to New York Post, “Governor Cuomo, who has been vowing to clean up Albany since before he took office, has tried to change that. In 2011, he got the Legislature to OK pension forfeiture by law-breaking officials who began their careers after the bill took effect. Yet New York’s Constitution would have to be amended to impose the same kind of penalty on those who took office before then.”

Consequently, the state Senate passed a bill this year calling for just such an amendment, which was blocked by Sheldon Silver’s former Assembly colleagues. Supposedly, they claimed “the bill was too broad, and that it could potentially hit not just elected officials and high-ranking staffers, but also ordinary ‘janitors.’” However, since the Assembly failed to act this year, the constitutional amendment is currently dead, which means “longer-serving lawmakers needn’t fear losing their pensions even if they’re found guilty of a crime,” reports New York Post.

Moreover, since his conviction Silver’s feathers do not appear to be ruffled in any manner. According to a Daily News report, Silver told friends and associates that while he is disappointed with the verdict he is quite confident that he will prevail on an appeal of the judgment.

One source told the Daily News. “He’s normally Shelly. He’s someone who has always been able to compartmentalize.”

His case which has dominated the headlines underscored the fact that Albany was also responsible for allowing an environment of “politics are usual” to flourish.

And the New York State speaker enjoyed the unwavering support of his contemporaries despite the fact that they were totally clued in to Silver’s treacherous ways. As a Daily News editorial stated: “Everyone in Albany knew to a moral certainty that the speaker was betraying the public trust and rigging the game to his predations.”

For example, Manhattan Assemblyman Richard Gottfried described Silver as a hero, as was reported by the Daily News. Moreover, influential Assemblywoman Deborah Glick announced that Silver was a fine, upright legislator who was “upholding Democratic principles in this state.”

While Silver amassed his support by doling out monies to assembly members for their respective districts, the legislators were happy to turn a blind eye to precisely what was transpiring behind the scenes.

During the trial, US Attorney Preet Bharara revealed the crimes that Silver was committing with detailed specificity and gave the jury a picture of an oleaginous figure who used his legislative clout for the purposes of slaking his own avarice.

The New York Post previously reported that Dr. Robert Taub, who was at the center of the government’s case against Silver “disapproved of him and his law firm (Weitz & Luxenberg) and referred cancer patients there only as long as Silver was funneling him state money for research.”

Dr. Taub referred mesothelioma patients to Weitz & Luxenberg in return for Mr. Silver distributing his shares of two secret grants in the total of $500,000 to Taub’s cancer research center. Silver would then acquire 33% of what the law firm managed to recover from the patients.

In September, Weitz & Luxenberg was told along with other firms by Judge Peter Moulton that they and their adversaries need to create new rules for the cases, or he will do it for them.

No charges were filed against Weitz & Luxenberg, and the firm has cut all ties with Silver.

The motion made by the defendants to halt all asbestos trials until revisions are completed was rejected by Moulton.

In his ruling on August 28, Moulton said, “In balancing the parties’ interests, the court finds that the current state of NYCAL [New York City Asbestos Litigation] is not so rampantly unfair as to warrant suspending the trials. However, the court agrees that defendants have raised important issues that warrant a complete re-examination of the CMO [case management order or rules].”

Silver also protected Vito Lopez, a sex harasser and tried to block an ethics investigation against him.

Moreover, in order to keeps his nefarious dealings hidden from plain view, Silver “rigged creation of a state ethics committee to prevent the panel from examining his personal dealings,” according to the Daily News.

Raphael Rahamani

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