NEW YORK — A prosecutor says greed led New York’s former assembly speaker to make millions of dollars illegally by cashing in his power. Assistant U.S. Attorney Tatiana Martins told jurors so on Thursday as closing arguments began in the second trial of Sheldon Silver. The once-powerful Democrat was convicted at an earlier trial, but the verdict was overturned. Martins said the 74-year-old Silver engineered bribery schemes to earn $4 million in legal fees before he made another $1 million by investing what she called the “dirty money.”The defence says the fees were legal and that there’s no proof Silver pocketed the money in exchange for taking official action. Silver was first elected to the Assembly in 1976.

Source: National Post May 10, 2018 04:05 UTC