Corrupt ex-NYC judge Sylvia Ash sentenced to 15 months for obstructing justice

A corrupt former Brooklyn judge was sentenced to 15 months in prison Wednesday after being convicted of obstruction of justice charges – a case that “struck at the heart of the criminal justice system,” a federal jurist said.

The disgraced Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice, Sylvia Ash, was convicted of conspiracy to obstruct justice and other counts at trial last year for attempting to throw off federal investigators who were probing embezzlement at the Municipal Credit Union.

Ash previously served as chair of the Board of Directors of the MCU, a credit union that primarily serves New York City civil servants, such as firefighters, sanitation workers and police officers.

She helped the former CEO of the MCU, Kam Wong, embezzle millions of dollars from the financial institution, in part, by signing a misleading memo that purported to show he was authorized to receive the cash.

US District Judge Lewis Kaplan said it was “as tragic a case as I have seen in almost 28 years” as he handed down the sentence in Manhattan federal court.

Kaplan noted that Ash, who rose from a modest immigrant upbringing, had thrown away her career, her status in the community and her reputation.

Her downfall was a “just consequence of your own dishonest, corrupt and frankly outrageous conduct,” the judge said.

“It was not aberrational. It was calculated,” Kaplan said of the scheme.