Quantcast

The DNAinfo archives brought to you by WNYC.
Read the press release here.

Sheldon Silver Stripped of Law License

 Sheldon Silver was convicted of money laundering, fraud and extortion.
Sheldon Silver was convicted of money laundering, fraud and extortion.
View Full Caption
DNAinfo/Irene Plagianos

LOWER MANHATTAN — Former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver is no longer a lawyer, a state appeals court ruled Tuesday.

The disgraced ex-Assemblyman was stripped of his law license Tuesday after a panel of Manhattan Appellate Division judges ruled that, based on Silver's conviction on fraud and extortion charges in November, he was essentially automatically disbarred.

The court ruled Silver should be "stricken from the roll of attorneys and counselors-at-law in the State of New York" as of Nov. 30, 2015, the date of his conviction.

Silver's attorneys had argued that the court shouldn't decide on his disbarrment until after a federal judge had ruled on his pending motion for a new trial. But the judges effectively said that the moment he was convicted was enough to warrant the loss of his license, based on case law.

A federal jury found Silver, 72, guilty of seven counts of fraud, extortion and money laundering related to two bribery schemes in which he used the guise of his legal practice to get more than $3 million in kickbacks over several years.

Silver, who faces more than 100 years in jail for his crimes, is set to be sentenced on April 13.