Albany

A federal grand jury indicted former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver on Thursday, nearly a month after he was accused of using his position to collect $4 million in bribes and kickbacks disguised as legal fees.

The three-count indictment, filed by U.S. Attorney for the Southern District Preet Bharara, accuses the Manhattan Democrat of honest services mail fraud, honest services wire fraud and extortion under color of official right.

Prosecutors claim that between 2000 and 2015, Silver collected $700,000 from his position at a small Manhattan real estate firm, Goldberg and Iryami, and $3 million from his work at the personal injury firm of Weitz & Luxenberg. Neither firm has been charged with wrongdoing.

Silver allegedly collected the payments in return for pushing favorable real estate policy for developers and for steering state grants and personal help toward a doctor who, through Silver, steered mesothelioma clients to Weitz & Luxenberg. While the alleged scheme was being carried out, federal prosecutors charge that Silver concealed the relationships.

"For example, Silver made materially false and fraudulent representations and omissions about his outside income, including but not limited to Silver's public statements, statements on his Disclosure Forms, and statements to others concerning his outside income," the indictment states, and that he also took steps to prevent disclosure of outside income to the Moreland Commission to Investigate Public Corruption.

In February 2014, he claimed the commission was "engaged in a fishing expedition to intimidate legislators." The next month, Gov. Andrew Cuomo agreed to mothball the investigation in exchange for a package of ethics changes that critics said were meager.

According to the indictment, Silver, if convicted, must forfeit money and assets in bank and investment accounts, including those held in limited liability companies and limited partnerships. The indictment also lists Silver's ownership of a Sullivan County property and two Manhattan apartments.

The indictment listed several of Silver's bank accounts as well as money in two Buffalo-based limited liability companies, including $368,000 in an HSBC account held in the name of JoRon Management LLC, and $100,000 in a Bank of America account held by Counsel Financial Services LLC, aka Counsel Financial Holdings.

Both of those LLCs appear to be connected to Weitz & Luxenberg: Perry Weitz and Arthur Luxenberg serve on Counsel Financial's board, and Counsel's president, Paul Cody, was chief financial officer of JoRon, described in his online biography as "a closely held private equity fund with investment interests ranging from non-recourse plaintiff funding to commodity-based financial products."

Counsel Financial bankrolls legal actions by providing lines of credit to plaintiffs' attorneys.

"We do not wish to comment on anything as far as that's concerned at this time," said a woman who answered the phone at Counsel Financial Services' Williamsville offices. A JoRon representative didn't return a call seeking comment.

Silver, who is scheduled to be arraigned on Tuesday, has said he will be vindicated.

"Our client is not guilty," said a statement from Joel Cohen and Steven Molo, Silver's attorneys. "We can now begin to fight for his total vindication. We will do our fighting where it should be done: in court."

Silver resigned as speaker on Feb. 2 after his arrest. Carl Heastie of the Bronx replaced him the following day.

Silver remains a member of the Assembly, and has appeared for regular sessions. Lawmakers facing charges can continue to serve, although a felony conviction would result in automatic ejection.

The indictment comes days after it was revealed that the Joint Commission on Public Ethics is threatening Silver with large fines for allegedly failing to accurately report his outside income on financial disclosure forms in 2011, 2012 and 2013.

A Silver spokesman said Wednesday that Silver "firmly believes that he filed all financial disclosure information pursuant to the law, and he intends to prove that."

Casey Seiler contributed. mhamilton@timesunion.com • 518-454-5449 • @matt_hamilton10