New York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver surrendered to the FBI today for federal corruption charges stemming from unreported millions made over a decade from the Manhattan law firm Goldberg & Iryami, the New York Times reports.

As the Times notes, Goldberg & Iryami is a firm that challenges real estate assessments and specializes in tax certiorari, something Silver "is not known to have any expertise in." The speaker failed to disclose income made from the firm; he only claimed money made from personal injury firm Weitz & Luxenberg.

The charges are a result of the anti-corruption Moreland Commission, first convened by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo to investigate outside income earned by state legislators, and later led by Preet Bharara, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, after Cuomo shut the panel down last April.

According to state financial disclosure forms obtained by the Wall Street Journal, Silver earned between $650,000 and $750,000 from "outside legal work" in addition to his $120,000 annual salary for his position as speaker in 2013. (Legislators are allowed to have part-time jobs.)

Silver, who has served as speaker for the past two decades and was easily reelected to the post earlier this month, has also been involved in—and dodged—a number of sexual harassment scandals. From Daily Intel:

Silver has also been accused of mishandling several sexual assault allegations in recent years. In 2001 he defended his chief counsel, Michael Boxley, when a 25-year-old Republican assemblyman's aide accused him of raping her. (She claimed Silver continued "eating pretzels, with nonchalance and with rudeness" as she described the rape.) The Assembly's investigation was inconclusive, and the woman chose not to go to the police. Silver continued employing Boxley, and the woman said his investigation was unfair. Two years later another woman charged Boxley with rape. He resigned and pleaded guilty to sexual misconduct.

After multiple women accused Assemblyman Vito Lopez of sexual harassment, such as groping them and making sexual remarks at work, a 2013 state ethics report found Silver failed to investigate and tried to cover up the allegations. Lopez was eventually censured and resigned. There were also complaints about Silver's handling of a young staffer's claim in 2013 that Assemblyman Micah Kellner sexually harassed her, though the speaker said he acted quickly after learning about the allegations.

Gawker's position on Silver has been clear since 2008, as put by Alex Pareene:

Sheldon Silver, Speaker of the New York State Assembly. Silver represents everything wrong with Albany and the New York Democratic Party. He fights relentlessly against accountability and getting anything done to benefit New Yorkers. He rules through backroom dealmaking and no longer even pretends to represent his district.

Update: Per the Times, Silver surrendered to the FBI in Lower Manhattan early this morning.

Update, 12:25 p.m.: According to the five-count criminal complaint by the FBI obtained by the New York Times, "there is probable cause to believe that Silver received approximately $4 million in payments characterized as attorney referral fees solely through the corrupt use of his official position." And per the Times, Silver was paid the money for "essentially no work"; prosecutors seized $3.8 million Thursday.

And then there's this mouthful:

The complaint maintains that for more than a decade, Mr. Silver devised a scheme "to induce real estate developers with business before the state" to use a real estate law firm controlled by a lawyer who had once worked as Mr. Silver's counsel who orchestrated payments to the speaker for referrals to the firm.

[Image via AP]