NEW YORK _ Former New York Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver was convicted Friday of corruption charges in his Manhattan Federal Court retrial.
The venerable politician's second trial ended with the jury returning its guilty verdicts on all counts in only its second day of deliberations.
Silver was originally convicted in November 2015 and sentenced to 12 years in prison.
But the U.S. Supreme Court in June 2016 altered the rules for instructing juries about political corruption laws _ leading an appeals court to overturn Silver's conviction last July.
The retrial took just two weeks with prosecutors demonstrating how the 74-year Silver collected nearly $4 million in illicit payoffs.
"In retrial, former assembly speaker Sheldon Silver swiftly found guilty on all counts," tweeted former prosecutor Preet Bharara, whose office indicted and first prosecuted Silver.
"Great work ... All New Yorkers should be grateful."
Silver spent more than 20 years as the state Assembly speaker, making him one of New York's three most powerful politicians.
Jurors heard from 26 witnesses over seven days. They got the case shortly before 5 p.m. Thursday, and deliberated for about 40 minutes before being sent home. They resumed their deliberations Friday morning.
In closing arguments, the government urged jurors to follow the money.
"This is bribery. This is extortion. This is corruption _ the real thing," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Tatiana Martins.
Silver's lawyer, Michael Feldberg, said Silver did nothing wrong by collecting referral fees from law firms.
"It was legal," he said. "And even if you think it was unseemly, that is no reason to find Shelly Silver guilty of the crimes charged."
The jurors disagreed, without needing a lot of time to reach their verdicts. The decision was hardly a shocker, as even the federal appeals judges on Silver's case acknowledged there was enough evidence to convict him.
It might have been enough for prosecutors to put on exactly the same case they did two years ago. The government instead introduced new witnesses and testimony at the second trial that seemed to enhance its case.
Dr. Robert Taub, a now-retired professor at Columbia medical school, said he referred to Silver some of his patients suffering from mesothelioma, a deadly cancer caused by asbestos, after a mutual friend told him that "Shelly needs cases."
Silver gave the names to colleagues at the Weitz & Luxenberg law firm, which paid him one-third of the fees it earned from their legal claims. Over time, Silver's referral fees from the cases totaled more than $3 million, prosecutors said.
Another new witness was Mary Hesdorffer, Taub's nurse, who said she yelled at her boss when she learned he was referring his patients to Silver in return for favors.
The ultimate return was a $500,000 research grant from New York taxpayers.
"I told (Taub) they would take him out in handcuffs," she recalled.
A third new witness was Jay Arthur Goldberg, who grew up with Silver on the Lower East Side and has been Silver's friend for 65 years.
Goldberg, a lawyer, represents real estate owners appealing city property taxes. He said that one day around 1997, Silver summoned him to a meeting at his legislative office downtown and declared: "I think I'm going to be able to refer Glenwood Management."
Glenwood _ one of the city's biggest real estate developers, specializing in high-rise luxury rentals _ paid Goldberg handsomely for its successful tax appeals.
Goldberg turned over 25 percent of the fees Glenwood paid to Silver as a referral fee.
Several years later, Silver helped Goldberg land a deal with another developer, The Witkoff Group. Goldberg paid Silver a referral fee of 15 percent of what he earned from Witkoff.
Prosecutors introduced evidence that Glenwood and Witkoff rely on the state Legislature for favorable rent regulation and housing finance laws _ and that Silver was key to them getting what they want.
From 2005 to 2015, Silver earned more than $800,000 in fees from Goldberg, the feds said. That sum doesn't count what Goldberg may have paid Silver between 1997 and 2004.
Silver's case is the latest in a string of corruption cases brought by Manhattan federal prosecutors.
Joseph Percoco, a former top aide to Gov. Andrew Cuomo, was convicted in March of corruption charges that included taking $300,000 in bribes from companies with state business.
In June, former Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos and his son Adam are to be retried on graft charges. Their convictions in December 2015 were also thrown out by an appeals court.
