Silver's conviction caps big year for prosecutor Bharara

Preet Bharara’s year may have finally reached its climax yesterday with the conviction of former assembly speaker Sheldon Silver, long one of the most powerful players in New York state politics, on all seven counts of fraud. For this magna cum laude grad of Harvard, who was selected to this year’s prestigious Vanity Fair New Establishment list, it was the most recent in a series of victories he lays claim to on behalf of taxpayers in New York and beyond, although not everyone agrees with his…