William E. Rapfogel led the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty for two decades, faced a sentence of four to 12 years when he appeared at State Supreme Court in Manhattan before Justice Larry Stephen. But under the terms of a plea agreement he accepted in April, Mr. Rapfogel paid the remaining balance of $3 million in restitution in exchange for a shorter sentence of 3⅓ to 10 years. The charity, known as Met Council, fired Mr. Rapfogel last August, when an internal investigation of an anonymous tip uncovered evidence that he had engaged in a scheme with the organization’s insurance broker to pad insurance payments and split the surplus. The criminal case carried significant political overtones because of the close ties between Met Council and Sheldon Silver, the powerful speaker of the state Assembly. For decades, Mr. Silver, a Manhattan Democrat, has given tax dollars to the organization, and appeared at Met Council events with Mr. Rapfogel. And Mr. Rapfogel’s wife, Judy, works as Mr. Silver’s chief of staff and has been an employee of his office since 1977.
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