Dean and Adam Skelos Sentenced To Prison
Matthew Cavanaugh/Getty Images [file][/caption]
Dean Skelos, the former New York State Senate Majority Leader, has been sentenced to five years in prison. His son, Adam Skelos, received a six-and-a-half year prison sentence.
The men were sentenced Thursday by United States District Judge Kimba Wood in New York City. They had been convicted of bribery, conspiracy and extortion in a federal corruption trial late last year.
U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, in a statement, noted in the span of 16 months, both leaders of the state legislature were convicted on corruption charges and sentenced to prison.
Bharara said that while Dean Skelos and former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver deserve to go to prison, "the people of New York deserve better."
The prosecutor said the cases show that the "most effective corruption investigations are those that are truly independent and not in danger of either interference or premature shutdown."
In March 2014, Governor Andrew Cuomo pulled the plug on a commission he established to investigate government corruption.
Bharara launched his own anti-corruption crusade and utilized some of the information developed by the commission which had been shut down.
In his statement Thursday, Bharara indicated his office will continue to expose and punish corruption throughout New York.
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