Federal Investigation Over Payments To Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver

The New York Times is reporting that U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Preet Bharara and the FBI are investigating “substantial” payments to New York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver. The Times reports the payments to Silver come from a law firm that sought real estate tax reductions on residential and commercial properties in New York City. Bharara’s office and the FBI found the law firm Goldberg & Iryami PC made payments to Silver for over a decade but the income was not listed on Silver’s financial disclosure forms. Silver did not respond to questions about the investigation. The Times reports that the investigation came as a result of the Moreland Commission’s work – the anti-corruption panel created in 2013 then shut down by Governor Andrew Cuomo in March of 2014.