Silver Also To Pay a $1.75 Million Fine To Take Into Account Taxpayer Funded Pension
WHITE PLAINS – Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the
Southern District of New York, announced on May 3, 2016, that former New
York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver was sentenced Tuesday
afternoon to 12 years in prison after having been found guilty by a
federal jury of using his official position to obtain nearly $4 million
in bribes and kickbacks in exchange for his official acts and obtaining
another $1 million through laundering the proceeds of his crimes.
Silver
was sentenced in Manhattan federal court by U.S. District Judge Valerie
E. Caproni who also presided over the five-week jury trial. U.S.
Attorney Preet Bharara said, “Today’s stiff sentence is a just and
fitting end to Sheldon Silver’s long career of corruption.” In addition
to the prison sentence, Judge Caproni ordered Sheldon Silver, 72, of New
York, New York, to pay a $1.75 million fine, forfeit $5.3 million, and
pay a $700 special assessment fee. Silver also was sentenced to two
years of supervised release. The Government had sought a fine above the
Sentencing Guidelines level in light of the taxpayer-funded pension that
Silver will received for the rest of his life, despite having been
convicted of federal corruption offenses. In imposing the fine, Judge
Caproni took into account Silver’s pension. Silver was found guilty by a
unanimous jury on November 30, 2015, of two counts of honest services
wire fraud, two counts of honest services mail fraud, two counts of
extortion under color of official right, and one count of engaging in
illegal monetary transactions.
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