Now that Sheldon Silver, as speaker of the New York State Assembly arguably one of the three most powerful people in Albany, has been arrested, there is bound to be renewed talk of ethics reform. The complaint filed by U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara is sweeping and damning. It says, “Silver used the power and influence of his official position to obtain for himself millions of dollars in bribes and kickbacks masked as legitimate income earned by Silver, as a private lawyer.”

Bharara said that, over the years, most of Silver’s outside income, which by law must be disclosed to the assembly, was said to be coming from clients with asbestos cases. The complaint says the law firm of Weitz & Luxenberg paid Silver more than $3.2 million in referral fees from 2003 through 2014 for the referral of asbestos cases. But the actual patients or members of their families in at least 10 of those cases said there was no contact at all with Silver.

According to Bharara, the names of the alleged asbestos victims came from a physician named Dr. Robert Taub, who oversaw the Mesothelioma Research Center at New York Presbyterian Hospital. The indictment says Silver funneled two grants amounting to $500,000 to the center.

The complaint alleges other instances of corruption involving real estate and says, “there is probable cause to believe that Silver obtained approximately $4 million in payments characterized as attorney referral fees solely through the corrupt use of his official position,” from 2000 through 2014.

The arrest has shocked the players in Albany, and prompted many lawmakers to comment on the matter. Assemblywoman Aileen Gunther issued a statement saying, “I’m discouraged by this news. I am neither judge nor jury, but I have faith in the judicial system. This will most likely be a long process, and while it continues to unfold, I will continue to focus on the job I was elected to do—represent my constituents with honesty and integrity. It’s a responsibility I take very seriously, which is why it has been my one and only job since my election.”

Bharara, who is the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, said at a news conference on January 22, the day of the arrest, that there are likely to be more indictments coming. He said, “These charges in our view go to the very core of what ails Albany: lack of transparency, lack of accountability, and lack of principle—joined with overabundance of greed, cronyism, and self-dealing.”

It is interesting to note that some of the information in the investigation was developed by the Moreland Commission, which was established by Gov. Andrew Cuomo in 2013 to investigate ethics complaints in the state.

The complaint says, “When, in or about 2013, the Moreland Commission to Investigate Public Corruption began to investigate outside income earned by Sheldon Silver, the defendant, and other state legislators, Silver took legal action and other steps to prevent the disclosure of such information to the commission.”

Cuomo famously dissolved the commission in March 2014. Cuomo said he did that because he reached a deal with the legislature regarding ethics legislation and the commission was no longer needed.

Others said he dissolved the commission because its investigations were getting too close to friends and political associates. In July 2014, The New York Times published a report saying the commission issued a subpoena for an advertising firm that created ads for Cuomo, and his office pressured the commission to withdraw it.

The report said, “While the governor now maintains he had every right to monitor and direct the work of a commission he had created, many commissioners and investigators saw the demands as politically motivated interference that hamstrung an undertaking that the governor had publicly vowed would be independent.”

In response to the arrest, Zephyr Teachout, a law professor who ran against Cuomo in the Democratic primary in September, wrote an op-ed piece for the New York Observer that said in part, “Sheldon Silver will have to answer the particular charges of corruption he is facing. But as the governor who promised to root out corruption, Andrew Cuomo has to answer for a culture of secrecy and corruption, an Old Boys’ Network that has gotten worse, not better, since he took office.”

The last decade has been a particularly active one for scandals in Albany; there have been more than 30 of them, ranging from sexual harassment to accepting bribes, from falsifying evidence to obstruction of justice.

An indictment is not a guilty plea or sentence, and sometimes corruption cases can be hard to prove. Joe Bruno, the former senate majority leader, for example, was cleared of corruption charges last year, and taxpayers will repay his legal fees totaling $2.4 million.

Even so, it is clear that real ethics reform is needed in Albany and a truly independent ethics commission would be a good place to start.