Prosecutors had recommended that disgraced former Speaker of the New York State Assembly, the once high and mighty Sheldon Silver, should be sentenced to 14 years in jail for a variety of fraud, money laundering and extortion convictions…peppered with some serious adultery on the side.
I suspected the actual sentence would be a relatively small fraction of that length of time. I am happy to report, however, that my suspicion turned out to be unfounded.
Silver got 12 years.
And, in addition to the dirty dozen, Silver forfeited the $5.3 million dollars he scammed while in office…..and must pay a $1.75 million dollar fine.
In sentencing Silver, Judge Valerie Caproni said “Silver’s corruption cast a shadow over everything he has done. “Those are not the actions of a basically honest person. Those are the action of a scheming, corrupt politician.”
He certainly got that right.
Silver is just one of the high ranking politicians in New York who are being tried, convicted and sentenced.
And, though most are Democrats like Silver, this goes for both sides of the aisle. Next week, Silver’s Republican counterpart, Dean Skelos, will find out how long he’ll be cooling his heels in prison as well.
Silver and Skelos locked up. It couldn’t happen to two more deserving guys.
