A charity with ties to disgraced Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver sent out an SOS Thursday — just hours after the powerhouse politician was arrested on corruption charges.
The Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty said it’s examining ways it can partner with other nonprofits as a way to “stabilize” the agency and create a “social-service safety net,” a spokesperson said in a statement.
“With the assistance of [United Jewish Appeal] Federation of New York . . . we are investigating various structures,” the statement said. “Our top priority will be to identify those partners that can most effectively meet the needs of our clients in the years ahead.”
A spokesperson for the Met Council — which spends roughly $110 million annually on poverty programs — said they are “fiscally sound,” despite the cry for help.
But sources confirmed that the group’s board has voted to dissolve and give their contracts and services to other providers.
The charity was previously run by Silver’s longtime pal, William Rapfogel, who is serving time in jail after pleading guilty last year to running a decades-long $9 million kickback scam. Rapfogel’s wife, Judy, is Silver’s chief of staff.