Sheldon Silver Gets 12 Years in Prison

Sheldon Silver, Ex-New York Assembly Speaker, Gets 12-Year Prison Sentence

By BENJAMIN WEISER and VIVIAN YEEMAY 3, 2016

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Sheldon Silver, the former State Assembly speaker, arrived at court Tuesday in Lower Manhattan for his sentencing. He was convicted of corruption in November. CreditGregg Vigliotti for The New York Times

Sheldon Silver, who rose from the Lower East Side of Manhattan to become one of the state’s most powerful and feared politicians as speaker of the New York Assembly, was sentenced on Tuesday to 12 years in prison in a case that came to symbolize Albany’s culture of graft.

The conviction of Mr. Silver, 72, served as a capstone to a campaign against public corruption by Preet Bharara, the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York,which has led to more than a dozen state lawmakers’ being convicted or pleading guilty.

But none had the power, cachet or longevity that Mr. Silver, a Democrat, had enjoyed, and prosecutors sought to make an example of him. They asked that he receive a sentence greater than the terms that had been “imposed on other New York State legislators convicted of public corruption offenses.”

The longest such sentence cited by the government was 14 years, the term imposed last year in the case of another former Democratic assemblyman, William F. Boyland Jr., who was tried and convicted in federal court in Brooklyn.

Carrie H. Cohen, an assistant United States attorney, asked that Mr. Silver’s sentence “reflect the massive damage caused to the public by his crimes.”

The sentence, Ms. Cohen continued, should “send a message that this is not how business is done in Albany,” adding that “no one, including Sheldon Silver, is above the law.”

Mr. Silver briefly addressed the court before his sentence was delivered, saying he had let down his constituents, family and colleagues. “I’m truly, truly sorry for that,” he said.

The judge, Valerie E. Caproni, said at first that the many letters written on Mr. Silver’s behalf demonstrated that he went “above and beyond the call of duty many times.” But she then outlined why she thought Mr. Silver deserved a serious sentence, certainly one that went far beyond the community service his lawyers had requested.

Judge Caproni said that there had been an “incalculable harm to the people of New York,” and that the cumulative effect of public corruption “makes the public very cynical.” She then listed some of Mr. Silver’s misdeeds, and addressed him directly: “Mr. Silver, those are not the actions of an honest person.”

Mr. Silver was convicted on Nov. 30 of charges that included honest services fraud, money laundering and extortion. Upon his conviction, he forfeited his Assembly seat. Two weeks later, Dean G. Skelos, who as majority leader had been Mr. Silver’s Republican counterpart in the State Senate, was also convicted of corruption.

Mr. Skelos is to be sentenced on May 12; a week later, John L. Sampson, a former leader of the Senate Democrats, will face his own sentencing. The scrutiny continues: Several inquiries are now focused on possible wrongdoing connected to the administrations of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio, both Democrats.

To date, however, Mr. Silver’s precipitous fall has no recent rival in the world of New York politics.

Mr. Silver had served for more than two decades as the Assembly speaker, imposing his will on matters large and small; he had a reputation as a staunch defender of New York City, a shrewd negotiator at budget talks and, at times, a recalcitrant opponent of anything he disliked.

But at a five-week trial in Federal District Court in Manhattan last fall, a different side of Mr. Silver emerged. Evidence showed that he had obtained nearly $4 million in illicit fees in return for taking official actions that benefited a prominent cancer researcher, Dr. Robert N. Taub, at Columbia University, and two real estate developers, Glenwood Management and the Witkoff Group.

Mr. Silver had expressed regret that his conviction — and the revelations of rampant kickbacks, bribes and influence-peddling — had made the State Capitol the object of ridicule. In a letter sent last month to Judge Caproni, he offered an emotional apology, saying that he had “failed the people of New York.”

His lawyers had argued that the former speaker should be allowed to use his “unique talents” to benefit others, and that a sentence of “extensive community service and little — if any — incarceration could do that.” On Tuesday, they suggested that he could work with the Fortune Society, which helps the formerly incarcerated.

“His obituary has already been written,” about his crimes, one of his lawyers, Joel Cohen, said. “Notwithstanding everything he has done.”

But prosecutors on Tuesday questioned the authenticity of Mr. Silver’s contrition, noting that he had insisted that he would be exonerated “until the very moment of the jury’s verdict.”

Judge Caproni, citing Mr. Silver’s age, said she would not adhere to sentencing guidelines that recommended a term of roughly 22 to 27 years, saying such a sentence would be “draconian and unjust.” The court’s probation office had recommended a 10-year sentence.

The judge, however, upheld the government’s request that Mr. Silver forfeit more than $5 million in proceeds from his crimes and pay a $1.75 million fine.

Mr. Silver must surrender himself by noon on July 1; his lawyers have requested that he serve at the Federal Correctional Institution in Otisville, N.Y., because of its familiarity with the housing of Orthodox Jewish prisoners.

In a statement issued moments after the sentencing, Mr. Bharara said that the “stiff sentence is a just and fitting end to Sheldon Silver’s long career of corruption.”

Last month, prosecutors, in a written submission to the judge, offered what they said was additional evidence of the ways Mr. Silver had abused his office “for personal benefit,” by helping two women with whom he had conducted extramarital affairs.

One of the women had regularly lobbied Mr. Silver on behalf of clients with business before the state; he had “used his official position,” prosecutors said, to help the other woman get a state job.

Cleaning Up New York State Corruption: Who Is Preet Bharara?

U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara

Preet Bharara: The man behind NY corruption busting
Joseph Spector, Journal Albany Bureau, December 26, 2015

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ALBANY - When Andrew Cuomo was running for attorney general in 2006, he vowed to be the “Sheriff of State Street,” where the state Capitol is located.

A decade later, there’s a new sheriff in town: U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara.

In his six years in office, Bharara has won the guilty verdicts of 27 public officials, and none were larger than the convictions in the last month of the former legislative leaders, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Senate Leader Dean Skelos.

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Already, Bharara has carved out a public-corruption record that rivals anyone who has held the distinguished post for the Southern District of New York, which covers parts of New York City and the Hudson Valley.

People close to him say Bharara has a calm confidence that, over decades in politics and the courtroom, has driven him toward a belief that New York is fertile ground for public corruption.

He has wiretapped lawmakers and their phones, turned their trusted political allies into informants and stepped in when state prosecutors and oversight agencies didn’t.


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The goal, ultimately, is to change government for the better, he and those who’ve worked with him said.

“There’s a lot of cases that you do, but these two (Silver and Skelos) are ones that hopefully will actually change things in a broader way,” said Richard Zabel, Bharara’s former deputy until June when he left for the private sector. “That’s what Preet is trying to do.”

Bharara’s convictions of Silver and Skelos — two of the three most powerful figures in New York — has led to speculation about his own political future and whether he is targeting the state’s other most powerful leader in New York: Cuomo, the Democratic governor.

Bharara’s office is still believed to be investigating Cuomo and his staff’s role in the demise of — and the potential tampering with — a corruption-busting panel that Cuomo empaneled in 2013 but shuttered a year later.

Bharara earlier this month didn’t let Cuomo off the hook when asked directly whether Cuomo is next on his list. He has criticized Cuomo’s decision to disband the Moreland Commission, but Cuomo has defended the move, saying the commission's work has aided prosecutors' probes and led to new ethics reforms.


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Who’s next? Bharara won’t disclose corruption probes

“I’m not going to talk about any investigations that we have open. We have lots of investigations open,” Bharara said on WNYC radio. “I think that people like to talk about what’s going to happen tomorrow.”

But he added: “You shouldn’t read into anything I’m saying one way or the other. And I know people like to do that.”

Capitol shadow

Bharara, 47, a naturalized U.S. citizen who was born in India, has loomed large over the Capitol since he starting digging into corruption soon after he took office in August 2009 — months after he was nominated by President Obama.

A former assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District between 2000 and 2005, Bharara got his first true taste of politics as chief counsel to U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-NY, over the subsequent four years.

Friends said that experience shaped Bharara’s understanding of the politics and levers of power in New York.

“His prosecutorial background is enhanced because he understands the political process, and he’s not afraid of it,” said Viet Dinh, a close friend and prominent Washington, D.C., lawyer.

With Schumer, Bharara also appears to have picked up his former boss’ skills at trying to gain maximum media impact.

Silver was arrested Jan. 22 — just hours after the Manhattan Democrat was on stage with Cuomo at the governor’s State of the State address near the Capitol.


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When Bharara arrested Silver and Skelos, the news conferences were filled with charts that showed their alleged wrongdoing. He ended the Silver briefing with, “Stay tuned” — and he’s used that ominous line repeatedly since.

“He has clearly put the fear of ‘you know what’ in the hearts of all Albany legislators,” said Siena College poll spokesman Steven Greenberg. “And his record is phenomenal.”

Bharara’s office has only lost one corruption case: former Assemblyman William Boyland, D-Brooklyn, was acquitted in 2011, but was ultimately convicted in a separate trial by federal prosecutors in Brooklyn.

After Silver’s arrest, Bharara railed against Albany in a series of interviews, calling it a “cauldron of corruption.” His actions raised eyebrows as to whether Bharara was on a publicity tour, and it soon drew a rebuke from the judge in the Silver case.


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Bharara rips Albany's "cauldron of corruption"

“The U.S. Attorney, while castigating politicians in Albany for playing fast and loose with the ethical rules that govern their conduct, strayed so close to the edge of the rules governing his own conduct that Defendant Sheldon Silver has a non-frivolous argument that he fell over the edge to the defendant’s prejudice,” U.S. District Court Judge Valerie Caproni wrote in April.


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Judge upholds Sheldon Silver's indictment, but chides Preet Bharara

Since then, Bharara’s interviews have been limited. He spoke to The New York Timesafter the Skelos conviction and did the WNYC radio interview. Through a spokesman, he declined an interview request from Gannett’s Albany Bureau.

Building cases

While his lower Manhattan-based office has taken down terrorists and Wall Street executives, Bharara’s public corruption cases have gained the most statewide interest, fueling talk that he may one day run for elected office. His current office has launched the careers of other future politicians, such as Rudy Guiliani and Thomas Dewey.

But Bharara would have to become more widely known in New York: A Siena poll this month showed 73 percent of voters didn’t know him or have an opinion of him.

Dinh said the question over Bharara’s next career move may be simply between staying in the public sector versus the pull of a lucrative job in the private sector. Bharara has a wife and three children, and with a new president to be elected in 2016, his future as U.S. attorney could be in doubt.

“One of the things people keep asking is how long can he afford to do this, and the answer is how long can his family afford for him to do this?” Dinh said.

Soon after taking office, Bharara’s office began bringing corruption cases.

They started with the Jan. 6, 2010, indictment of Sandy Annabi, the former majority leader of the Yonkers City Council. Two years later, she was sentenced to six years in prison.


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As the cases built — including convictions against former Hudson Valley Sens. Nick Spano and Vincent Leibell — his staff began to see common themes.

Top state lawmakers had discretion over millions of dollars of public funds that they could dole out with little public oversight, Zabel explained. So they started to follow the money.

The pots of taxpayer dollars allowed the leaders to wield unmatched power — and the grants that they doled out ultimately was at the heart of the corruption cases against Silver and Skelos.

“It kind of led us to think about what are these areas where politicians in New York seem to be preserving themselves the ability to distribute or get money and grants for their own purposes,” Zabel said.

The conviction of Sen. Thomas Libous, R-Binghamton, in July, centered around himlying to the FBI over getting his son a job at a Westchester County law firm — in part by allegedly promising the law firm work because of his power in Albany.


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Libous sentenced to house arrest, $50,000 fine

Wiretaps and more

Another key tactic has been the use of wiretaps and non-prosecutorial agreements with key witnesses, such as top campaign donors to Skelos and Silver.

One Bronx legislator wore a wire for four years as a federal informant. A Queens senator wore a wire while at home with an injury, then pleaded guilty to corruption charges.

In the Skelos case, a wiretap was used in part on the phone of Skelos’ son, Adam, who was also convicted in the case. Tapes were played in court that revealed remarkable exchanges between the father and son over how they planned to use the Long Island Republican’s office to benefit Adam’s private business dealings.


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“We knew these were hard cases to make and so we were always looking for ways we could either get a wiretap or wire people up, like informants and others, and get people on tape,” Zabel said. “That’s the best evidence for a jury.”

Bharara’s tactics have shaken Albany to its core: No longer can private conversations in the Capitol’s dark halls be considered sacred.

And when lawmakers return next month for a six-month session, Bharara’s shadow will hover over the place.

“Everybody in Albany that I talk to, Democrat and Republican, all the speculation is where does he go next? Is the governor on the target list?” said Assemblyman Bill Nojay, R-Pittsford.

Movie lines

For those who know Bharara, his ascension is not a surprise: He’s not boisterous, yet confident and attentive.

Zabel said he and Bharara would exchange messages at 1 a.m. and talk about cases late into the night. In both the Silver and Skelos cases, Bharara was often in court watching his prosecutors present their arguments.

“Some people call him fearless, but it’s not fearlessness born out of reckless abandon,” Dinh said. “It’s a fearlessness born out of confidence in the process and confidence in the work of his office.”

Schumer called Bharara one of the smartest people who ever worked for him.

“He’s cleaning up Albany and that’s a great thing, and I’m proud of him,” Schumer said during a recent visit to Rochester.

Bharara is a Bruce Springsteen superfan and likes to quote lines from movies. One of his favorites is from Mark Wahlberg, who played a police sergeant in The Departed,saying: “I’m the guy who does his job. You must be the other guy.”

Next steps

Bharara’s convictions have led to a new round of calls for ethics reform at the Capitol, and Bharara himself has joined the chorus of those clamoring for change.

In the WNYC interview Dec. 14, Bharara talked about the entrenchment of long-serving leaders, such as Silver who was the speaker for more than 20 years. He also mentioned the problem of lawmakers having outside income and the difficulty of trying to recoup their pensions after they are convicted; the pensions are protected by the state Constitution.

“He’s going to turn out to be a major historical figure in New York,” Blair Horner, the longtime legislative director for the New York Public Interest Research Group. “He may end up single-handedly changing Albany’s political climate.”

Whether Silver and Skelos, who are planning to appeal, are the capstone to Bharara’s corruption crusade or a precursor to more cases remains to be seen.

Bharara’s “stay tuned” line — which he also used in his first Twitter message Dec. 10 — seems to be both a way to toy with lawmakers and warn them.

As he said on the radio: “The first line of defense against bad conduct is the institution itself. And it seems they are doing a pretty poor job of self policing.”

Joseph Spector: jspector@gannett.com, Twitter: @gannettalbany

Preet Bharara

Age: 47

Family: Wife and three children

Education: Harvard College with an A.B. in Government in 1990; Columbia Law School with a J.D. in 1993.

Experience: Lawyer at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, 1993-96; Swidler Berlin Shereff Friedman, 1996-2000; assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York, 2000-05; appeared on Time’s “100 Most Influential People in the World” list in 2012; chief counsel to Sen. Charles Schumer, 2005-09; appointed U.S. Attorney, 2009-present.

Key corruption cases

Sandy Annabi: Former majority leader of Yonkers City Council; convicted of bribery, honest services fraud in 2010; sentenced to six years in prison in 2012.

Hiram Monserrate: Former Queens senator; pleaded guilty to mail fraud in 2012; sentenced to two years in prison.

Vincent Leibell: Former Hudson Valley senator; pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice in 2010; 21 months in prison.

Anthony Mangone: Former chief of staff to Sen. Nick Spano; pledged guilty to conspiracy, bribery; sentenced to 18 months in prison this month.

Carl Kruger: Former Brooklyn senator; pleaded guilty in 2011 to honest services fraud; seven years in prison.

Nick Spano: Former Hudson Valley senator; pleaded guilty to obstructing IRS laws in 2012; one year in prison.

Malcolm Smith: Former Senate majority leader from Queens; convicted on wire fraud, bribery in 2015; sentenced to seven years in prison.

Noramie Jasmin: Former Spring Valley mayor in Rockland County; convicted on mail fraud in 2015; sentenced to four years in prison.

Thomas Libous: Former Binghamton-area senator; convicted on false statements to FBI in July; six months house arrest, appeal pending.

Ernest Davis: Mount Vernon mayor; pleaded guilty to failure to file tax returns; one year probation.

Sheldon Silver: Former Assembly speaker; convicted on all seven counts in November; appeal, sentencing pending.

Dean Skelos: Former Senate majority leader; convicted on all eight counts in December; appeal, sentencing pending.

Preet Bharara, U.S. Attorney, Sees Lessons in Albany Corruption Trials

By BENJAMIN WEISER, SUSANNE CRAIG and WILLIAM K. RASHBAUMDEC. 13, 2015

LINK

Preet Bharara, the United States attorney whose office recently won the corruption convictions of two of New York’s most powerful legislators, says that Albany’s problems are deep and systemic but that potential solutions are not hard to find: They lie in the nitty-gritty evidence presented at the unprecedented trial.

In his first interview since the verdicts, the most recent of which was delivered on Friday, Mr. Bharara said that the two trials hammered home the fact that the ability of lawmakers to earn outside income, coupled with a lack of transparency, weak disclosure requirements and the concentration of power in the hands of a few, is hugely problematic.

“It would be, I think, irresponsible not to spend some time talking about what those things, what those trials, have taught us, and what those cases may mean for how everyone can get good government,” Mr. Bharara said.

Mr. Bharara declined, as he has previously, to suggest specific reforms or remedies or to say how any such measures would be carried out.

But he said the fact that both convicted lawmakers — Sheldon Silver, the former Assembly speaker, and Dean G. Skelos, the former Senate majority leader — chose to go to trial instead of pleading guilty in a quick hearing allowed for a much more detailed airing of how their crimes were committed.

“All I’m saying is that what we offer in terms of the debate is the facts that were exposed in the cases that we have brought,” Mr. Bharara said.

“I think that people should take a look at what that showed,” he added, referring to the public and others who are seeking meaningful reform of Albany’s dysfunction.

Mr. Bharara noted that the trial of Mr. Silver, in particular, underscored the longstanding nature of his ethical lapses and his crimes, which dated back at least 15 years, and how some lawmakers in Albany allowed them to continue.

“The corruption in the State Legislature in Albany has not been episodic,” Mr. Bharara said. “It’s been systemic, and if nothing else, the trials revealed that there’s a deep culture problem, and a matter-of-factness about how at least these two defendants, who’ve now been found guilty, went about their daily corrupt business with barely a thought about it.”

Mr. Bharara, whose office has won the convictions of about a dozen current and former state legislators in his six-year tenure, said his public corruption investigations were continuing, but he would not discuss them.

RELATED COVERAGE


New Yorkers Want New Ethics Laws to Clean Up Albany, Poll FindsDEC. 14, 2015


Dean Skelos, Ex-New York Senate Leader, and His Son Are Convicted of CorruptionDEC. 11, 2015


Sheldon Silver, Ex-New York Assembly Speaker, Is Found Guilty on All CountsNOV. 30, 2015

He also declined to discuss what kind of sentence his office would seek for the two former lawmakers, who forfeited their seats upon conviction.Photo

Sheldon Silver, a former speaker of the New York Assembly, leaving federal court in Manhattan last month after being found guilty on all counts in his corruption trial. CreditRobert Stolarik for The New York Times

Mr. Silver, 71, a Manhattan Democrat, was found guilty on Nov. 30 on honest services fraud, extortion and money laundering charges, for schemes through which he obtained nearly $4 million in exchange for using his office to help benefit a cancer researcher and two real estate developers.

Mr. Skelos, 67, a Long Island Republican, and his son, Adam B. Skelos, 33, were found guilty on Friday of bribery, extortion and conspiracy charges, for schemes that exploited the senator’s position to pressure a developer, an environmental technology company and a medical malpractice insurer to provide the son with hundreds of thousands of dollars in consulting fees and a no-show job.

Mr. Bharara took special interest in the two trials, spending many days observing from the rear of the courtrooms with several of his senior aides. In the interview, he recalled one piece of testimony that he had found particularly revelatory — “stunning,” as he put it.

Albany on Trial
In the past decade, the state capital has been rocked by a seemingly endless barrage of scandals and arrests involving officeholders.

Albany Trials Exposed the Power of a Real Estate FirmDEC 18

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Adam Skelos's IncomeDEC 10

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State Senator Tony Avella, a Democrat from Queens, testified that as chairman of the Senate Ethics Committee, he had been barred from holding any committee hearings.

“The idea that the chair of the ethics committee has never had the opportunity to mark up a bill, has never had the opportunity to hold a hearing,” Mr. Bharara said, “tells you everything you need to know about the enabling nature of all the people in the State Legislature who may not have been convicted of crimes, but seem not to care that they’re going on. I think that’s indisputable.”

Mr. Bharara, while reiterating he was not advocating any specific reform, said the trial showed how a lack of transparency and no restriction on outside incomes made it easier for lawmakers involved in corrupt deals to carry out their crimes undetected.

“It makes it harder to prosecute the bad apples when every apple is able to be nontransparent about that outside income,” Mr. Bharara said. “I’m trying to suggest that these are things that are really, really worth talking about,” he added.

Mr. Bharara noted that investigators, agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and career prosecutors “have been doing their job with abandon” for years.Photo

State Senator Dean G. Skelos and his son, Adam, left the federal courthouse in Manhattan after the verdict this month.CreditAndrew Renneisen for The New York Times

“But that doesn’t solve the problem any more than the curing of one patient solves a plague,” he added, asserting that any solution must also involve the public and politicians.

Mr. Silver and the elder Mr. Skelos, as the two Legislative leaders, worked closely with Andrew M. Cuomo, a Democrat who successfully ran for governor in 2010 on a promise to clean up Albany. He has pursued ethics reform numerous times, and achieved only modest results.

And in July 2013 he established a high-powered commission, stacked with a number of state prosecutors, to root out public corruption. However, in a widely criticized decision the governor just nine months later shut down the panel, known as the Moreland Commission.

Earlier this year he said his administration had “proposed every ethics law imaginable” and “you can’t legislate morality and you can’t legislate intelligence.”

But in recent days, after the convictions, Mr. Cuomo has said more reform was, in fact, needed, telling reporters on Sunday that the changes need to be sweeping.

Mr. Bharara, in the interview, also recalled another moment in the trials, when Mr. Silver’s defense lawyer, Steven F. Molo, accused prosecutors of effectively criminalizing conduct that was legal, normal and that allowed “government to function consistent with the way that our founding fathers of the State of New York wanted it to function.”

Mr. Bharara cited the strong response made by one of his prosecutors, Andrew D. Goldstein, who told the jury that such an argument tainted the democratic process by calling corruption “politics as usual.”

The juries “rejected that sorry excuse twice,” Mr. Bharara said.

He also recalled the suggestion, made in court and elsewhere, that prosecutors did not really understand politics.

“One defense lawyer said the prosecutors look at everything through ‘dirty windows,’ ” Mr. Bharara said. “Well, you know what? It turns out it wasn’t the windows that are dirty.”


Sarah Maslin Nir contributed reporting.

Marcello Trebitsch, Sheldon Silver's Son-in-Law, Going To Jail For $6 Million Ponzi Scheme

Marcello Trebitsch, who is the son-in-law of Sheldon Silver, leaves Manhattan Federal Court on Wednesday, December 16, 2015. He was sentenced to two years in prison for stealing $6 million 

from investors.

Sheldon Silver’s son-in-law will spend 2 

years in prison for $6M Ponzi scheme

BY VICTORIA BEKIEMPIS 

LINK 

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS,  

Updated: Wednesday, December 16, 2015, 5:50 PM

Sheldon Silver's Ponzi scheming son-in-law will spend two years in prison for pocketing some $6 million from unsuspecting investors, a Manhattan federal judge ruled Wednesday.

Marcello Trebitsch, who is hitched to disgraced ex-Assembly speaker Silver's daughter Michelle, pleaded guilty in July 2015 to one count of securities fraud related to the seven-year-long scam.

The fraudster's sentencing comes just two weeks after a federal jury convicted Silver of seven corruption counts. A source previously told the Daily News Silver and Trebitsch's arrests were not connected.

Trebitsch promised Allese Capital investors 14-to-16% returns with little risk. He fudged financial statements to make the investments look profitable. In reality, he was hoarding the money for himself and paying back other investors.

He admitted to the scheme when he pleaded guilty, telling the court: "I'm sorry for what I've done and I apologize to the court and my family."

"As Marcello Trebitsch admitted in court today, he ran a multimillion-dollar Ponzi scheme, defrauding investors who put their faith in him," Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said after Trebitsch's plea. "He returned their faith with deceit and self-dealing, lying about his trading losses and using investor money on himself."

Sheldon Silver's son-in-law pleads guilty in fraud case, admitting he received $7M in Ponzi scheme

BY CAITLIN NOLAN 

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Monday, July 13, 2015, 5:38 PM

LINK
Sheldon Silver's son-in-law copped a plea in Manhattan Federal Court Monday, admitting that for years he defrauded investors of millions of dollars in a Ponzi scheme.

Marcello Trebitsch, 37, pleaded guilty to securities fraud before Judge Vernon Broderick, saying that from 2007 to 2014, he received $7 million from investors, for which he promised high returns with low risk.

"I also gave them false account statements," leading investors to believe that was what they were getting, Trebitsch said in court.

Federal prosecutors said Trebitsch, who is married to the former Assembly Speaker's daughter Michelle, promised investors to Allese Capital a 16% return and then doctored financial statements to reflect profit, while in reality Trebitsch was using the remainder of the funds for his own personal benefit and to pay back other investors.

"I'm sorry for what I've done and I apologize to the court and my family," Trebitsch said.

Trebitsch faces up to 20 years behind bars if convicted at trial. The plea deal calls for Trebitsch to serve between 51 to 63 months, but Broderick reminded him that the final decision on his punishment would be his.

"Their prediction could be wrong," Broderick warned. By pleading guilty, Trebitsch waived his right to appeal Broderick's sentencing decision.

"At sentencing, we are hopeful the Court will treat him leniently once the full background of this case is explained in our sentencing memorandum," said Trebitsch's lawyer, Benjamin Brafman.

Under the terms of the deal, Trebitsch must also pay $5,905,949 in forfeiture and restitution. He’ll be sentenced Nov. 2.

Former NY State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver Is Found Guilty of All Bribery and Extortion Charges

Just keep going, Preet. We need a cleanup in New York State!

Betsy Combier
Editor, Courtbeat

Sheldon Silver

Sheldon Silver Convicted in Federal Corruption Trial

By Andrew Siff and AP

 LINK

Former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver has been convicted of bribery and extortion charges in a federal corruption trial that increased scrutiny of politicians in Albany, where power has long been concentrated in the hands of the Assembly speaker, the Senate president and the governor.

The jury handed down its decision Monday, less than a month after the powerful 71-year-old Democrat's trial began. 

Silver said nothing as the verdict on each count was read in the Manhattan courtroom, his head bowed slightly and a somber expression on his face. The judge polled each juror to confirm their verdict.

Silver faces up to 20 years in prsion, although that sentence is unlikely. It's expected he will appeal the verdict immediately.

U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said in a statement "SheldonSilver got justice, and at long last, so did the people of New York." 

Silver, who served as the speaker of the assembly for more than 20 years, was arrested in late January and is accused of collecting around $4 million in bribes and kickbacks since 2002, using his law license and lax New York disclosure laws to disguise the profits as referral fees.

The lawmaker quit his speaker post after his arrest but retained his Assembly seat. Neither Silver nor his attorneys could immediately be reached for comment on the verdict.

There was some drama when jury deliberations began last Tuesday when a juror claimed that other jurors accused her of failing to use her common sense, leaving her feeling "very, very uncomfortable."

"I'm feeling pressured, stressed out," the juror wrote in a note to U.S. District Judge Valerie Caproni in Manhattan as she asked to be excused from further deliberations.

In her note, the juror said she had a different opinion and view than other jurors "and it is making me feel very, very uncomfortable."

"My heart is pounding and my head feels weird," she said. "I am so stressed out right now that I can't even write normally. I don't feel like I can be myself right now! I need to leave!"

After a prosecutor recommended she be released as a juror, the judge said it was too early to do so, and said she would urge jurors to respectfully exchange views.

"Listen to and exchange views with your other jurors," Caproni said she would tell them.

The judge said she was further convinced that patience was the best remedy when another note emerged from jurors shortly afterward. In it, the jurors asked if there was a code of conduct or ethics code that clearly stated whether receiving funds for something in return is illegal.

"It seems there is some deliberation going on," the judge told lawyers. "It's too early to throw in the towel."

In all, 31 lawmakers have been convicted of crimes or have left public service amid allegations of ethical misconduct since 2000, according to a tally kept by the good-government group Citizens Union.

Assemblyman Sheldon Silver's Sordid Past Deeds Keep Popping Up

Sheldon Silver leaving Court January 2015

Everyone knew about Assemblyman Sheldon Silver's backroom politics, and no one did anything until Preet Bharara stepped in.

A 2011 episode isn’t part of Sheldon Silver’s corruption indictment, but prosecutors
want to use it to support their case. CreditNathaniel Brooks for The New York Times

Sheldon Silver, Former Assembly Speaker, Helped Developer Block Methadone Clinic’s Relocation, U.S. Says

By BENJAMIN WEISERSEPT. 14, 2015

LINK
When a methadone clinic sought to relocate to Manhattan’s financial district in 2011, parents, local business owners and others rallied in opposition. Perhaps the most prominent opponent was Sheldon Silver, then the powerful speaker of the State Assembly who represented that neighborhood.

“I made it clear to everyone involved that this does not seem to be an appropriate location for this facility,” Mr. Silver said in a statement released at the time.

But what Mr. Silver did not reveal then, federal prosecutors said in court papers filed last week, was that a real estate developer who owned a building near the proposed location had asked him for his help in blocking the project — and that Mr. Silver had a secret interest in providing such assistance.

Mr. Silver, prosecutors said in the filing, was receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars in illegal payments disguised as referral fees from a law firm to which he had steered some of the developer’s legal business.

 

Mr. Silver, 71, a Democrat from the Lower East Side, is scheduled for trial on Nov. 2 on corruption charges in Federal District Court in Manhattan. Prosecutors say he abused his official position to obtain nearly $4 million in illicit payments through two law firms, including one that received the developer’s business. The developer has been identified as Glenwood Management.

The clinic episode is not cited in the indictment against Mr. Silver. But the office of Preet Bharara, the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, asked in the filing that Judge Valerie E. Caproni allow the government to present it in support of its case.

Mr. Silver, who was forced to step down as speaker after his arrest in January, has pleaded not guilty to charges that include extortion under color of official right and honest services fraud.

Mr. Silver’s lawyers have not yet responded in court papers to the government’s claims about Mr. Silver’s role in the clinic real estate deal.

Steven F. Molo, one of Mr. Silver’s lawyers, said on Monday, “Mr. Silver served his constituents and the people of the state of New York well in connection with that matter and committed no crime.”

A lawyer for Glenwood Management did not respond on Monday to a message seeking comment.

Mr. Bharara’s office said in its filing that in November 2011, after the state’s Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services had tentatively approved the clinic’s move to 90 Maiden Lane, near one of Glenwood’s buildings, the developer requested Mr. Silver’s assistance “to prevent such clinic from opening.”

Prosecutors say that Mr. Silver responded by “intervening with the relevant state agency and further advocating against” the clinic’s opening.

When the clinic’s proposed relocation became public, it drew sharp criticism in the community, and Mr. Silver said at the time that he arranged for the clinic to make a presentation, which occurred before a committee of Community Board No. 1 in Lower Manhattan.

Catherine McVay Hughes, the community board’s current chairwoman who was then its vice chairwoman, recalled in an interview on Monday that the meeting, held on Dec. 7, 2011, was “packed with parents and local business people.”

Among people’s objections was that the clinic had not notified the board in advance of the proposal, and that the location was too close to a school for young children. One resident presented petitions with 600 signatures in opposition that were collected over just a few days, Ms. Hughes recalled.

“This was a hot-button issue,” she said.

Ron Vlasaty, then the chief operating officer of Gramercy Park Services, the clinic’s operator, said on Monday that the company had proceeded with the location because it believed it had the state’s “blessing.”

But one day after Mr. Vlasaty appeared before the community meeting and saw the extent of the opposition, he said, the company withdrew its application.

After the project was dropped, a Glenwood Management lobbyist drafted a letter to the residents of the firm’s nearby building, praising Mr. Silver’s “outstanding efforts,” the government said in its filing.

“Assemblyman Silver sprung into action as soon as it was revealed that this application was pending,” the letter said.

Two years later, a proposal was made for another substance abuse center on Maiden Lane near that same Glenwood Management building.

 “I thought Shelly killed this damn thing?!” a Glenwood representative wrote in an email that prosecutors attached to their filing.

“We need to kill this again,” a lobbyist for the company responded, the government said.

The substance abuse center did not relocate to the Maiden Lane address, the government said in its filing, which does not state whether Mr. Silver played a role in blocking it.

Thomas Kaplan contributed reporting.

 

Sheldon Silver's Lawyers Try To Limit Testimony At Trial

Public corruption for the length of time and the extent to which Mr. Silver's use of his powerful position to gain financial rewards for himself was exposed needs to reach throughout the New York State dens of inequity.

No limits!!!

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, accused of taking $4M in bribes, kickbacks, says he 'will be vindicated'

Updated January 22, 2015 10:57 PM
By YANCEY ROY  yancey.roy@newsday.com 

Lawyers for Silver seek to limit corruption testimony at extortion trial

Updated September 11, 2015 9:43 PM
By JOHN RILEY  john.riley@newsday.com

LINK

Former New York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, right, exits Federal Court in Manhattan after being re-arraigned on new charges on Tuesday, April 28, 2015. Silver was arraigned on additional corruption charges. Photo Credit: Charles Eckert

Lawyers for former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver asked a federal judge in a motion filed Friday to limit at his upcoming extortion trial any testimony about corruption cases against other legislators or the reasons for creating the now-defunct Moreland Commission on Albany ethics.

"Lumping Mr. Silver together with other prosecuted New York legislators runs the obvious risk of guilt by association," Silver's lawyers told Manhattan U.S. District Judge Valerie Caproni. "The Government seeks to paint Mr. Silver as merely the latest example of a long line of corrupt Albany politicians, implying that Mr. Silver must be corrupt because of his job."

Democrat Silver, 71, is scheduled to go on trial in November on charges that he used his legislative power in two schemes to generate $4 million in kickbacks in the form of fees from law firms he was affiliated with. He stepped down as speaker, but still represents an Assembly district in Manhattan.

 

SEE ALSORead the complaint vs. Silver
SEE ALSOEditorial: Reform Albany

Silver's lawyers said the government wants to put in Silver's comments, while speaker, on corruption cases against five ex-legislators, including Senate leader Joe Bruno, Sen. Carl Kruger and Assemb. William Boyland, as evidence to show Silver knew the legal limits on outside income for legislators.

They said prosecutors also claim they need to put in evidence of widespread corruption in Albany as a backdrop to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo's creation of the Moreland Commission, because Silver allegedly took steps to conceal his outside income from the commission before it was dissolved.

"Evidence about that allegation requires no proof about Governor Cuomo's motives in forming the Commission, any historical events that may have informed those motives, and -- most certainly -- sordid (and often unproven) allegations about misconduct by other specific legislators," argued lawyers Joel Cohen and Steven Molo.
 

 

The lawyers also asked the judge to keep out evidence of $200,000 in campaign contributions from a company he helped, and a letter he wrote questioning the property tax assessment of the Manhattan housing complex where he lived, calling both matters irrelevant.

A spokesman for Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara had no comment on the filing.