The small law firm that made significant financial payments to Modern Orthodox New York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon "Shelly" Silver – payments which Silver reportedly failed to disclose and which are the focus of an ongoing FBI and US Attorney’s Office investigation – has a client who is a wealthy slumlord who is also tied to Silver, and Silver tried to help that slumlord save money on taxes, allegedly because his rabbi asked him to.
Above: Sheldon Silver
Did Sheldon Silver Help A Notorious Slumlord Because His Rabbi Asked Him To?
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com
The small law firm that made significant financial payments to New York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver – payments which Silver reportedly failed to disclose and which are the focus of an ongoing FBI and US Attorney’s Office investigation – has a client who is a wealthy slumlord and who is also tied to Silver, the New York Times reported.
That landlord, Baruch Singer, is like Silver an Orthodox Jew. Singer’s father Yitzchok was the rabbi at the Lower East Side Orthodox synagogue Silver and his close friend, the now-convicted embezzler William E. Rapfogel, who stole millions from the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty, have prayed at for decades.
Singer, whose buildings have amassed thousands of violations over the years and who is a notorious slumlord, is reportedly not currently under federal investigation.
“I happen to be — thank God — one of the best landlords in the city of New York,” Singer told the Times this with week.
Nonetheless, the Times has found at least one instance in which Silver tried to have a special bill passed to benefit Singer – something Silver says happened because Singer’s father the rabbi asked him to – and other instances of Silver taking political actions that were meant to benefit large landlords.