Dramatic fresh testimony in the corruption trial of former assembly speaker Sheldon Silver shows one of the state’s biggest developers was afraid of the consequences whether it stopped steering money to him.
In 2011,Richard Runes — Glenwood Management's chief lobbyist who ran the developer’s government relations learned that some money the company was paying for tax appeal work was actually going to Silver. At the time, changes in state ethics rules required the law firm — Goldberg and Iryami — to notify Glenwood it was giving Silver a portion of the money the genuine estate company was paying.
The speaker had been getting the money for more than a decade after referring his friend’s law firm to Glenwood. But Runes testified it wasn’t until 2011 that he and other Glenwood officials learned Silver was getting a prick.
Runes testified he was worried it might not be legal under state lobbying rules. So he ran it by a company attorney and was told it was okay. But Runes still worried it might look bad whether anyone found out. He testified that he felt like he was holding a tiger by the tail. He didn’t want to steer money away from Silver for apprehension of alienating the powerful speaker.
Ultimately, or Glenwood kept the checks flowing to the Silver-connected law firm. And they worked out a deal where they made no mention of the financial connection between Silver and Glenwood in any documents that would be filed publicly. Instead they signed a separate side letter memorializing the relationship but in a way that it would remain secret from the public.
Source: wnyc.org