Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Sheldon Silver’s Friend Used Hebrew ‘Code’ To Warn Him About FBI

A friend of Sheldon Silver said in court Tuesday that he warned the former Assembly speaker about being raided by the FBI in 2014 using a Hebrew codeword, the New York Post reported.

Dr. Robert Taub — a key government witness in a corruption retrial of Silver that began Monday — said he called Silver to tell him that the FBI had raided Taub’s home. He told the federal jury in Manhattan that he had used the phrase “bikur cholim” — a visit to a sick person.

“I mentioned it to let him know that I had been rendered ill … rendered sick by a visitation,” Taub said. “He [Silver] asked whether I had told them anything. I said I didn’t think so.”

The two have not spoken since — Silver was arrested shortly after and tried for bribery. His conviction was overturned on appeal, but now federal prosecutors are retrying him for selling access to his office for over $4 million dollars in gifts and kickbacks.

About $3 million of that came from Silver’s connection to Taub. Taub, an oncologist at Columbia University, would refer mesothelioma patients to Silver’s law firm. Taub would get a cut of the money won in lawsuits brought by the patients.

“I will keep giving cases to Shelly [Silver] because I may need him in the future — he is the most powerful man in New York state,” Taub wrote in an email in 2010.

Contact Ari Feldman at [email protected] or on Twitter @aefeldman

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.