Federal prosecutors in Manhattan have filed corruption charges against longtime New York City correction officers union president Norman Seabrook.
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The former president agreed to “direct transfers of millions of dollars” in union retiree benefit and operating funds to the hedge fund, according to a 17-page indictment released Wednesday.
Friend: NY Mayor Bill de Blasio called Seabrook his “friend” in 2014.
The main investigation into team de Blasio, jointly run by the USA attorney’s office for New York’s Southern District and by Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance Jr., is examining de Blasio’s efforts to help Democrats win the state Senate in 2014 and whether donors to his campaign or the Campaign for One New York nonprofit received city benefits in exchange for donations.
Representatives for Platinum Partners were not immediately available.
According to a criminal complaint, Seabrook invested US$20 million of union money in 2014 in New York-based Platinum Partners in exchange for kickbacks from Huberfeld, who worked at the firm. The Southern District of NY alleged Seabrook received a $60,000 bribe – all cash, in a stuffed Ferragamo bag – to invest COBA money with the fund.
They were arrested at their homes Wednesday morning without incident, said Kelly Langmesser, a Federal Bureau of Investigation spokeswoman.
Seabrook (L) and Huberfeld (R).
Among the several officers at that trip, the New York Daily News reported, was then-NYPD Chief of Department Philip Banks III.
Feds continue to investigate claims that top police and government officials accepted gifts for favors, an investigation that also includes businessman Jeremy Reichberg. The witness connected Seabrook with Huberfeld, who was looking to attract investors in the public realm.
It says Huberfeld used an intermediary to pay Seabrook an initial kickback of $60,000 in cash.
According to CW-1, Huberfeld was secretly running Platinum, but his role was not publicly acknowledged because of “a prior lawsuit or investigation relating to a fund Huberfeld previously ran”, the complaint said.
He told the witness it was time “Norman Seabrook got paid”, according to the complaint.
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The corruption case against the head of the nation’s largest correction officers union hinges on a Ferragamo bag stuffed with $60,000 cash, U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said on Wednesday.
