The powerful speaker of the New York State Assembly, Sheldon Silver,
was arrested on federal corruption charges on Thursday, sending shock
waves through the political establishment and upending the new
legislative session.
Mr.
Silver, a Democrat from the Lower East Side of Manhattan who has served
as speaker for more than two decades, surrendered to Federal Bureau of
Investigation agents early Thursday morning in Lower Manhattan, law
enforcement officials said.
Mr. Silver, before entering 26 Federal Plaza, said, “I hope I’ll be vindicated.”
Preet
Bharara, the United States attorney for the Southern District, who led
the investigation, is expected to provide more details about the charges
at a 1 p.m. news conference.
The investigation of Mr. Silver began after Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo in March abruptly shut down an anticorruption commission he had created in 2013.
The
federal inquiry focused on payments that Mr. Silver received from a
small law firm that specializes in seeking reductions of New York City
real estate taxes.
While
it is legal for lawmakers to hold outside jobs, investigators said Mr.
Silver failed to list the payments from the firm, Goldberg & Iryami,
on his annual financial disclosure filings with the state.
In
the past, Mr. Silver has been criticized for his outside law practice, a
lucrative career that supplements the $121,000 he earns as speaker.
In
2013, Mr. Silver earned at least $650,000 in legal income, including
work for the personal injury law firm, Weitz & Luxenberg, according
to his most recent financial disclosure filing.
But
what he does to earn that income has long been a mystery in Albany, and
Mr. Silver has refused to provide details about his work.
In December, The New York Times reported that federal authorities were investigating substantial payments made to Mr. Silver by Goldberg & Iryami.
Mr.
Silver is not known to have any expertise in the specialized area of
the law in which the firm practices, known as tax certiorari, and the
nature of Mr. Silver’s work for the firm was unclear.
Tax
certiorari work is done on contingency, with lawyers traditionally
getting paid roughly a third of any reduction they obtain.
Goldberg
& Iryami appears to have just two lawyers. It operates out of a
small office at 42 Broadway in Lower Manhattan, a somewhat run-down
building that also houses a number of city offices. It is led by Jay
Arthur Goldberg, 75, who served on New York City’s Tax Commission during
the administration of Mayor Edward I. Koch.
In
recent years, Mr. Goldberg and his firm have represented hundreds of
properties across New York City, from modest storefronts on Staten
Island to office buildings in Midtown Manhattan, according to court
filings and records from the city’s Tax Commission. He has also
represented large cooperative developments on the Lower East Side, the
neighborhood that makes up the heart of Mr. Silver’s political base.
After the disclosure, Mr. Silver said he had done nothing wrong but declined to comment in detail.
The
speaker since 1994, Mr. Silver is a consummate back-room player, one of
Albany’s “three men in a room,” along with the governor and Senate
majority leader, who negotiate the state budget and hammer out deals on
important legislation.
