Summary: Making hundreds of thousands of dollars for referring clients is just about every business and sales person’s dream, but Sheldon Silver was allegedly giving paybacks for those referrals, landing him in big trouble.
The truth is coming out in the case of Sheldon Silver, former speaker of the State Assembly. While serving as the speaker, Silver was also making hundreds of thousands of dollars from the law firm Weitz & Luxenberg, despite not actually practicing law.
Despite such a high income, Silver’s explanation of his clients as “plain, ordinary, simple people” is actually accurate. During his case before the Federal District Court in Manhattan, the lawyers at Weitz & Luxenberg explained how this was so.
Silver’s responsibility at the law firm for over a decade was to refer cases to the firm. With his referrals he earned special treatment from the firm. Managing attorney, Gary R. Klein, ended up personally delivering Silver’s paychecks to the bank instead of mailing them to him.
Making money from referrals is not the questionable practice that is getting him in trouble. The source of the charges against him originates from where Silver was getting the clients. Klein estimates that 75 percent of the money Silver made from referrals came from patients Dr. Robert N. Taub suggested to Silver. Taub is an oncologist that works specifically with mesothelioma.
The claim by the government against Silver is that he made over $3 million from these referrals, with which he repaid Taub with $500,000 in state grants. The mesothelioma cases that law firm took on could be worth millions of dollars.
Silver has pleaded not guilty to the charges of money laundering, fraud, and extortion.
Photo: thealbanyproject.com