On Wednesday at a public appearance, Mr de Blasio reiterated that he was “absolutely comfortable that we have done things properly”.
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Seabrook, known for his taste for flashy clothing, was delivered a $60,000 bribe that was placed in a bag from the designer Salvatore Ferragamo-the union leader’s favorite, according to the criminal complaint. The charges against Seabrook and Murray Huberfeld, a hedge-fund financier, Platinum Partners, are the result of a number of corruption probes against New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio. At a 2014 fundraiser for a union charity, de Blasio referred to Seabrook as a “friend” and a “great leader”.
Seabrook invested $20 million of his union’s funds with Platinum in early 2014.
“As alleged, Norman Seabrook and Murray Huberfeld engaged in a straight forward and explicit scheme”, Preet Bharara, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of NY, said in a prepared release. In subsequent months, Seabrook unilaterally invested two other $5 million payments, leaving “COBA with just over $3 million cash on hand for the union”, it says. Murray Huberfeld of Platinum Partners was also detained. Alongside partners from the FBI, Bharara outlined a “straightforward and explicit bribery scheme”, complete with a color-coded chart illustrating the flow of $20 million of COBA money, which Seabrook allegedly invested in Huberfeld’s hedgefund in exchange for kickbacks.
Huberfeld, who is a generous contributor to Orthodox Jewish causes, and Seabrook were charged with one count of conspiracy to commit honest service fraud and one count of honest services wire fraud.
De Blasio, who sought to distance himself from Seabrook on Wednesday, said if the allegations against Seabrook are true they are “disgusting” and “very, very sad”.
Seabrook has fiercely defended his union members amid repeated allegations of brutality and misconduct at the Rikers Island jail complex and elsewhere in the 10,000-inmate jail system.
The FBI in NY says Norman Seabrook and Murray Huberfeld of Platinum Partners, L.P. were arrested early Wednesday. “Norman Seabrook loves you”, Valentin alleged. Reichberg’s lawyer was not immediately available for comment on Wednesday.
At the time, Seabrook’s union had never before invested in a hedge fund. Bharara said that Platinum’s funds were struggling at the time that the investments were made, and that other investors were pulling their money out of Platinum.
The head of the New York City correction officers’ union is facing federal corruption charges along with a hedge-fund founder.
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A 17-page criminal complaint says Huberfeld “agreed to pay kickbacks to Seabrook”.
