There’s more bad news for people with ties to Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver. The husband of a top aide to the speaker has been fired from his job at a top New York City not for profit and is under criminal investigation by the state attorney general.
Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has confirmed that his office has launched a criminal probe of William Rapfogel, CEO of the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty, one of New York City’s largest human services agencies.
In a statement, Schneiderman said, “This matter is the subject of an ongoing criminal investigation conducted in conjunction with the office of the comptroller, as part of Operation Integrity.”
According to a report in the New York Times, Rapfogel was terminated while on vacation and all of his office papers and computers have been confiscated.
A statement from the Met Council says in part that the group “recently became aware of specific information regarding financial irregularities and apparent misconduct,” and has fired Rapfogel, who is the husband of Silver’s top aide, Judy Rapfogel. Judy Rapfogel is not implicated in any wrong doing.
The news comes amidst ongoing negative news about the speaker and his aides, after two sexual harassment scandals involving Assembly members became public. Silver has already let go of one of his top counsels and apologized for keeping secret a $100,000 settlement with two of the alleged victims in the Vito Lopez sexual harassment scandal.
According to the state comptroller’s office, Met Council currently holds nearly two dozen state contracts.
