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December 8, 2014- The NY Times reports, “So far, people with knowledge of the matter say, prosecutors have found that Sheldon Silver, the powerful Democratic speaker of the State Assembly, failed to disclose some of the income he earned in the private sector. While he has disclosed earnings from a major personal-injury law firm for years, prosecutors found other law-firm income that he did not detail as required. A spokesman for Mr. Silver said that he had disclosed all of his law-practice income, but declined to answer questions about its source.
Speaker of the State Assembly would seem to be a demanding job.
But Sheldon Silver, the Manhattan Democrat who has held that post since 1994, managed to earn upward of $650,000 last year from outside legal work.
Yet Mr. Silver, like the many other lawmakers who hold outside jobs, is not required to reveal much more than the source of his extracurricular income.
The Moreland Commission wanted to find out what legislators like Mr. Silver did to earn such second paychecks — or if they were merely cashing in on their political influence.
Investigators subpoenaed a host of law firms and a mixed bag of other businesses, among them a Rochester coffee shop and a Long Island concrete company.
But the law firms drew the most attention.
Mr. Silver works at a large personal-injury firm, and many other legislators also work at law firms, including his counterparts in the State Senate leadership: Dean G. Skelos, a Long Island Republican, and Jeffrey D. Klein, a Bronx Democrat.”