Ex-Speaker Sheldon Silver convicted of corruption, again

NEW YORK (FOX5NY.COM) - A federal jury has convicted former New York Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver on all charges in his retrial for public corruption.

During the two-week Trial, jurors heard from 26 witnesses for the prosecution, which detailed how Silver funneled taxpayer money to a medical research project, then obtained the names of the patients, and gave them to the law firm Weitz and Luxenberg for lawsuits.

Silver collected nearly $4 million in bribes and kickbacks that he disguised as legal fees from law practice in exchange for his influence in Albany, prosecutors said.

For decades, Silver, now 74, seemed to be an invincible power broker in the state.

A jury first convicted Silver in 2015 but an appeals court tossed that conviction, citing a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that changed the legal boundaries for public corruption.

With the AP