Original Story: nytimes.com
In New York’s ornate Capitol building in Albany, a plan two years in the making was taking root. Everyone would benefit: Victims of mesothelioma, a rare but deadly form of cancer caused by exposure to asbestos, would be sent to a reputable law firm; the firm would pick up new clients; and a well-regarded cancer research clinic would receive funds. A San Francisco asbestos litigation attorney represents clients protect their legal rights in the face of devastating losses resulting from asbestos exposure.
And at the center of all this was Sheldon Silver, then the State Assembly speaker, prosecutors say.
The alleged arrangement, which has become the heart of the corruption case against Mr. Silver, came into focus at his trial on Wednesday, as Dr. Robert N. Taub of Columbia University testified in federal court in Manhattan as a government witness. Prosecutors charge that Mr. Silver, a Democrat from the Lower East Side, traded official actions for $3 million in an illegal kickback scheme.
Dr. Taub, who testified under a nonprosecution agreement, ran a clinic at Columbia dedicated to mesothelioma research. The clinic long relied on government grants, wealthy donors and even gifts from law firms and their foundations to fund his research.
But Weitz & Luxenberg, a major personal injury law firm that represents victims of mesothelioma, had not been a donor to Dr. Taub’s research, and he testified on Wednesday that he wanted to change that. A Charleston asbestos litigation attorney is reviewing the details of this case.
In 2003, the doctor reached out to Mr. Silver, who was on the law firm’s payroll, and asked the Assembly speaker to persuade the firm to make a contribution. Mr. Silver said that the firm could not do that, but not long afterward, Mr. Silver asked Dr. Taub if he could refer mesothelioma patients to Weitz & Luxenberg.
Dr. Taub testified that he agreed, and started sending potentially lucrative cases to Mr. Silver, which he said numbered at least two dozen over the years.
“I hoped to develop a relationship with him that would help fund mesothelioma research and would help my patients as well,” he told the jury.
In January 2005, after a ceremony at the Capitol to honor Mr. Silver, the two men met and discussed briefly Dr. Taub’s request for state funds to support his research. Mr. Silver eventually arranged for New York State to give Dr. Taub’s clinic two grants of $250,000 each in the years that followed.
Weitz & Luxenberg, in turn, typically gave Mr. Silver one-third of what it recovered in the cases, which totaled $3 million. Prosecutors have said that this arrangement was illegal, and that Mr. Silver was using his office for personal gain. A Newark criminal lawyer is following this story closely.
Dr. Taub, 79, is one of the government’s key witnesses in the trial of Mr. Silver, who has pleaded not guilty to fraud, extortion and money laundering charges. The government has alleged that Mr. Silver, 71, abused his position as one of the most powerful men in the state for personal gain, and in the case of Dr. Taub directed $500,000 of taxpayer money to him.
The doctor was a witness of contrasts. He came across as authoritative and passionate about treating mesothelioma, his life’s pursuit. He said he was one of only a few doctors in the world who specialized in treating mesothelioma, and estimated there are 3,000 new cases of the disease each year in the United States. “I’m put on this earth to help these people,” he said. “That’s what I want to do.”
At the same time, he acknowledged, he initially lied to federal investigators when they knocked on his door one day at 6 a.m. in the summer of 2014 and confronted him about his referrals to Mr. Silver.
“I was terrified and panicked, and I irrationally wanted to divorce myself” from the matter, Dr. Taub testified. Later, he said, he realized he had made a mistake and contacted investigators. Eventually, he said, he divulged everything he knew to the government, which reached a non-prosecution agreement in exchange for his cooperation.
Dr. Taub said he was introduced to Mr. Silver in the 1980s by a close friend, C. Daniel Chill, a lawyer who once served as counsel to a previous Assembly speaker, Stanley Steingut.
The doctor, in agreeing to refer patients to Mr. Silver at Weitz & Luxenberg, said he knew how valuable such cases could be for all involved, including Mr. Silver.
“I knew it would benefit his standing in the firm,” Dr. Taub said, acknowledging that it could also help him financially.
The doctor said that he made referrals to Mr. Silver for about a decade. He said he was unaware of Mr. Silver’s financial arrangements with Weitz & Luxenberg, but said Mr. Silver made it clear he was “pleased” at the referrals.
At some point, Dr. Taub was made aware he should send Mr. Silver a letter seeking state funding for his research program. Mr. Chill helped him draft the letter to the speaker, Dr. Taub testified.
After he sent that letter, the doctor said, the first state grant arrived.
Dr. Taub testified that Mr. Silver said at one point that he should not tell Mr. Chill about “any further referrals” made to the speaker.
“I didn’t know what to make of it actually,” Dr. Taub said. “He just wanted it kept between me and Mr. Silver, between me and him.”
Mr. Chill declined to comment.
In 2010, Dr. Taub began referring clients to another law firm that had agreed to provide significant financial backing for his research. Not long after, Mr. Silver visited Dr. Taub at his office at Columbia, and mentioned he was getting fewer referrals.
Dr. Taub said the two men parted on friendly terms and he kept sending referrals to Mr. Silver. “Just not as many,” the doctor told the jury.
During cross-examination on Wednesday, Mr. Silver’s lawyer, Steven F. Molo, asked Dr. Taub if he had “an explicit agreement to exchange patients for grants.”
“I did not,” he said.
Mr. Silver helped Dr. Taub in other ways. The doctor testified Mr. Silver arranged for him to be honored by New York State, helped get his son a job, and even offered to help him navigate red tape in organizing a mesothelioma run near the World Trade Center site, in Mr. Silver’s district.
“It will probably cost us,” Dr. Taub wrote in an email to another person involved in the run’s organization. “He is very good at getting people to owe him. But if he says he will deliver, he does.”
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