--- title: New York State Assembly Speaker Surrenders to FBI description: Sheldon Silver faces a federal investigation into payments he received from a real estate law firm canonical: https://time.com/3678210/sheldon-silver-surrenders-fbi/ author: Noah Rayman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-01-22T14:00:03.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T03:47:12.092Z article:section: Politics og:title: New York State Assembly Speaker Surrenders to FBI og:description: Sheldon Silver faces a federal investigation into payments he received from a real estate law firm og:url: https://time.com/3678210/sheldon-silver-surrenders-fbi/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt59f54a16de7fe78b/69877b3e8e060164f7459da7/sheldon-silver.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: New York Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver speaks during a news conference in Albany og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: New York State Assembly Speaker Surrenders to FBI twitter:description: Sheldon Silver faces a federal investigation into payments he received from a real estate law firm twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt59f54a16de7fe78b/69877b3e8e060164f7459da7/sheldon-silver.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # New York State Assembly Speaker Surrenders to FBI  by [Noah Rayman](https://time.com/author/noah-rayman/)  ## Noah Rayman Jan 22, 2015 2:00 PM UTC  The speaker of the New York State Assembly Sheldon Silver, in Albany, N.Y., in 2012. The speaker of the New York State Assembly Sheldon Silver, in Albany, N.Y., in 2012.Hand Pennink—Reuters  by [Noah Rayman](https://time.com/author/noah-rayman/)  ## Noah Rayman Jan 22, 2015 2:00 PM UTC The speaker of the New York State Assembly, a longtime Democratic powerbroker, [surrendered to authorities](http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/23/nyregion/speaker-of-new-york-assembly-sheldon-silver-is-arrested-in-corruption-case.html?%5Fr=0) on federal corruption charges Thursday morning. Sheldon Silver, the Assembly’s speaker since 1994 who was reelected in November, turned himself in to FBI agents in Lower Manhattan, the New York _Times_ reports. State legislatures are still able to serve after an arrest, but must leave if they are convicted of a felony. “I hope I’ll be vindicated,” he said as he turned himself in, according to the _Times_. Silver, 70, is the subject of a federal probe investigating payments he failed to list on annual disclosure filings from a small law firm that specializes in New York City real estate taxes, according to the _Times_. \[[_NYT_](http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/23/nyregion/speaker-of-new-york-assembly-sheldon-silver-is-arrested-in-corruption-case.html?%5Fr=0)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3678210/sheldon-silver-surrenders-fbi/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3678210/sheldon-silver-surrenders-fbi/"},"headline":"New York State Assembly Speaker Surrenders to FBI","datePublished":"2015-01-22T14:00:03.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T03:47:12.092Z","description":"Sheldon Silver faces a federal investigation into payments he received from a real estate law firm","url":"https://time.com/3678210/sheldon-silver-surrenders-fbi/","keywords":["States","Andrew Cuomo"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt59f54a16de7fe78b/69877b3e8e060164f7459da7/sheldon-silver.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Noah Rayman","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/noah-rayman/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt59f54a16de7fe78b/69877b3e8e060164f7459da7/sheldon-silver.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"New York Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver speaks during a news conference in Albany","caption":"The speaker of the New York State Assembly Sheldon Silver, in Albany, N.Y., in 2012.","creditText":"Hand Pennink—Reuters","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/states/","name":"States"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3678210/sheldon-silver-surrenders-fbi/","name":"New York State Assembly Speaker Surrenders to FBI"}}]}] ```