Landlords have cases before Silver-linked judge

Written By Unknown on Senin, 02 Februari 2015 | 18.18

Two Lower East Side landlords with ties to outgoing Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver have property-tax cases pending before a judge who owes his career to the disgraced Manhattan Democrat, The Post has learned.

Mark Miller and Sion Misrahi are also being represented by the law firm that allegedly funneled at least $700,000 to Silver in illegal kickbacks in a long-running corruption scheme, records show.

The judge presiding over their assessment challenges, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Martin Shulman, is a lifelong pal of Silver. He and Silver live in the same Grand Street building and pray at the same nearby synagogue.

"They're friends who grew up together. Shelly pushed Shulman through to be a Supreme Court judge," a judicial insider said.

Shulman also sits on a prestigious appeals court, the Manhattan Appellate Term. He was recommended to the court by a screening committee whose members include a Silver appointee.

Shulman is the lone judge in Manhattan who handles "tax certiorari" cases, in which owners challenge the official value of their real-estate holdings, which is used to calculate tax bills.

Feds say Silver illegally pocketed at least $700,000 in sham "referral fees" by steering business from two leading developers to a law firm specializing in tax-certiorari cases and founded by Silver's former Assembly counsel.

Silver never listed the payments on disclosure forms, the feds say.

The law firm, identified by sources as Goldberg & Iryami, has 17 cases pending before Shulman, including three on behalf of Miller and Misrahi.

Miller, owner of the Miller Manhattan Property Group and the Mark Miller Gallery, is the second vice chair and former president of the Lower East Side Business Improvement District, which Silver showered with more than $450,000 in public money between 2003 and 2010, state records show.

The funding stopped when Gov. Cuomo began vetoing pork-barrel spending by Albany lawmakers.

When Miller stepped down as the business-improvement district's president in 2013, Silver presented him with a plaque and an iPad.

He is challenging the $578,000 assessment on his six-story rental building at 256 Broome St.

Misrahi, also a business improvement district member, donated $300 to Silver in 2011 through his Brownstone Management Corp., campaign-finance records show.

He is contesting the $513,000 assessment on an 18-unit building at 188 Orchard St., as well as a $200,000 hike on another property at 11 Essex St.

Shulman didn't return a request for comment, but court-system spokesman David Bookstaver said the relationship between Shulman and Silver didn't create a conflict of interest.

"Because someone belongs to the same congregation, it would be far-fetched to say that would be a reason to recuse oneself from the case," Bookstaver said.

Miller and Misrahi didn't return messages seeking comment.


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