Sheldon Silver Sentenced to 12 Years in the Slammer

MANHATTAN, NY — Sheldon Silver, disgraced former speaker of the New York State Assembly, was sentenced Tuesday to 12 years in the slammer for an avalanche of in-office corruption that, all sums considered, netted him $4 million "in bribes and kickbacks from people and businesses in exchange for his official acts," according to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Manhattan. (And another $1 for laundering those criminal proceeds.)

So basically, if the 72-year-old ex-politician serves his entire sentence, he'll be in his mid-80s before he again walks among the free.

He'll also have to cough up $1.75 million to pay back his taxpayer-funded pension, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, who has spent the past year crusading against Silver and his alleged henchmen in Albany, said in a satisfied tweet Tuesday afternoon: "Today's stiff sentence is a just and fitting end to Sheldon Silver's long career of corruption."

More on his no-longer-alleged crimes, here.

Silver was born on the Lower East Side and spent three decades representing various Assembly districts in Lower Manhattan. He attended Yeshiva University in Washington Heights as an undergrad, and later earned his law degree from Brooklyn Law School in Downtown Brooklyn.

A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Manhattan told Patch Tuesday that while Silver's lawyers have requested he be sent to the Otisville Correctional Facility in upstate New York — a popular destination for Orthodox Jewish criminals like Silver — his request has not yet been approved.

Silver is currently free on bail and won't be required to report to the slammer until July, the spokesman said.

NYC's wilty, gray embodiment of the corrupt political machine spent his last night as a non-sentenced man strolling the drizzly streets of the Lower East Side with his wife, Rosa Silver. They both looked absolutely miserable.

Photo via Wikimedia