MANHATTAN (CN) — For corruption that "attacks the very heart of our system of government," former New York Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver must spend the next 12 years behind bars, a federal judge ruled on Tuesday.
Silver, 72, must forfeit more than $5 million of the bribes and kickbacks that he received and pay a $1.75 million fine.
The still-heavy sentence falls short of prosecutors' request that Silver receive the highest sentence ever dealt to a New York politician, a record still held by his friend, William Boyland Jr., a former Assembly colleague who is only eight months deep into a 14-year prison term.
With 20 years under his belt as speaker, Silver occupied a higher seat of power than Boyland. His corrupt scheme also lasted longer and reaped higher dividends. But Boyland is nearly 30 years younger than Silver, who is recovering from prostate cancer and received pleas for mercy from roughly 100 people.
U.S. District Judge Valerie Caproni said 12 years is enough to "make the next politician hesitate just long enough before taking a bribe or a kickback for his better angels to take over."
Or "if there are no other better angels, and for some people there are not, then maybe the fear of living out his golden years in an orange jumpsuit will keep him on the straight and narrow," she added.
The sentencing comes just over six months after a federal jury found that Silver made millions through no-show legal work for an asbestos firm and the state's largest real estate developer.
"There's so much money sloshing around government right now that it's very difficult to have confidence that any decision is being made on the merits," Caproni said. "That doubt about whether our public servants are operating in our interests or whether their vote is available for purchase to the highest bidder is magnified every time we see another politician exposed as corrupt."
With onlookers packed into the ceremonial courtroom and an overflow room, today's nearly two-hour hearing offered sharply different accounts of Silver's nearly four-decade-long career.
For lead prosecutor Carrie Cohen, Silver's story is one of "enormous, grave, unprecedented corruption."
Even the judge acknowledged, however, that the story also involves a "gifted politician."
"Some do it better than others, and it's clear that you did it quite well," Caproni said.
Representing lower Manhattan for nearly four decades, Silver won his first election to the legislature he would ultimately lead in 1976.
Silver touted his work rebuilding a district devastated by the Sept. 11 attacks and Hurricane Sandy, and he burnished a reputation as a champion of tenants' rights and public health care along the way.
Mesothelioma-injury cases had long been a fixture of the New York court system, but their numbers spiked after 9/11 because of asbestos that spewed into the atmosphere when the Twin Towers fell.
In return for lucrative referral fees, Silver supplied the firm Weitz & Luxenberg with patients of Dr. Robert Taub, a Columbia University physician who sought Silver's help securing state grant money.
Silver also received tens of thousands of dollars from the state's largest developer, Glenwood Management, which wanted his support for affordable-housing initiatives.