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Longtime Union Official Charged With Corruption in New York

Longtime head of the New York City correction officers union Norman Seabrook was arrested Wednesday by federal authorities and charged with taking kickbacks in a case potentially linked to investigations of Mayor Bill de Blasio.

By John Riley

Longtime head of the New York City correction officers union Norman Seabrook was arrested Wednesday by federal authorities and charged with taking kickbacks in a case potentially linked to investigations of Mayor Bill de Blasio.

Seabrook, according to a complaint filed in federal court in Manhattan, took a $60,000 kickback in 2014 in return for steering $20 million in union pension money and general funds to Platinum Partners, a hedge fund.

Seabrook, head of the union for 21 years, and the hedge fund founder, Murray Huberfeld, are charged with conspiracy and honest services fraud. The complaint also said an unnamed intermediary -- who has been identified in published reports as Jona Rechnitz, a Brooklyn real estate investor and de Blasio fundraiser -- has pleaded guilty and is cooperating.

The complaint said the FBI has been investigating Seabrook since 2014.

U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara in Manhattan was to announce the charges in a 12:30 p.m. news conference, and Seabrook and Huberfeld were expected to appear in court later Wednesday.

The government said Seabrook's clout inside the 9,000-member Correction Officers' Benevolent Association gave him substantial clout to direct investments of roughly $81 million in pension assets and $12 million in general funds.

Huberfeld and the cooperating witness allegedly took Seabrook on trips to the Dominican Republic, Israel and Las Vegas while they were persuading him to invest union funds, sometimes accompanied by an NYPD officer, and on one trip in December 2013 he complained that he worked hard on investing the union money and got nothing personally from it.

"Seabrook said that it was time that 'Norman Seabrook got paid,' " according to the complaint.

The government alleged that the cooperator arranged to get $60,000 from Platinum through a phony invoice for some Knicks tickets, and then bought Seabrook an expensive Ferragamo bag and put $60,000 in it.

But when he got the bag Seabrook, who had arranged to be paid a percentage fee based on Platinum's profits that he had been told would be between $100,000 and $150,000, was "angry that it was not as much money as he was initially promised."

Seabrook's lawyer, Paul Shechtman said, "Norman has spent his life fighting for correction officers and one should not expect him to stop fighting now."

DeBlasio said Seabrook would be immediately suspended from his job as a correction officer.

"If proven true, it's disgusting and it's very, very sad," the mayor said. "It means he stole money from his own workers. That's what it comes down to. If he defrauded his own pension fund, it means he took money that was meant for his workers' retirements and put it in his own pocket, and obviously his members entrusted him to take care of the pension fund."

Seabrook has resisted some reforms pressed by de Blasio and Bharara's office to curb violence at Rikers Island, but the mayor has also described Seabrook as "a friend" and a "great leader in this town."

The Seabrook case is one of multiple corruption investigations overseen by Bharara's office, including investigations of the NYPD and of de Blasio's fundraising that are believed to involve Rechnitz.

(c)2016 Newsday

Caroline Cournoyer is GOVERNING's senior web editor.
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