NORMAN SEA-CROOK
Disgraced jails union boss Seabrook guilty of taking $60,000 kickback
The longtime boss of the city’s jails union is about to get a different view of prison.
Norman Seabrook, the former head of the union representing city correction officers, was convicted Wednesday of taking a $60,000 kickback in exchange for a $20 million investment of members’ money.
Jurors returned the guilty verdict on a count of fraud, but were initially deadlocked on a conspiracy charge. They handed down the second guilty ruling after an additional hour of deliberation.
“I’m still smiling,” Seabrook, 58, said after the first verdict was read. He then consoled his supporters, including his wife, in the courtroom.
“Don’t cry, baby. God is good. Stop crying,” he said.
The verdict in Manhattan Federal Court capped a stunning downfall for Seabrook, who as head of the Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association held tremendous influence over promotions within the Department of Correction and jail operations.
“Norman Seabrook was once one of the most powerful union leaders in this city. Today, he stands convicted of taking a $60,000 bribe to invest $20 million of his union members’ money in a fund that ultimately went belly-up,” Manhattan U.S. Geoffrey Berman said.
It was the second time Seabrook had been tried for the scheme. The first effort ended in mistrial in November 2017 due to a deadlocked jury.
The charges of fraud — essentially betrayal of union members — and conspiracy both carry a maximum of 20 years in prison. Seabrook is expected to face much less when sentenced on Nov. 30.
As head of the union, Seabrook was often an opponent of reform, criticizing any measure that could be construed as an effort to coddle inmates at the expense of officers’ safety.
But there was a darker side to Seabrook’s swaggering, cigar-smoking public persona. Prosecutors said that by late 2013, he’d become frustrated that his power had failed to make him wealthy.
A crooked businessman, Jona Rechnitz, testified that he offered to help Seabrook solve that problem.
Rechnitz, the star government witness in both of Seabrook’s trials, was more prepared the second time around. Where Rechnitz appeared evasive and shady in the first trial, the second time around he openly addressed his greed and deceit and appeared regretful.
Juror Richard Wade said he found Rechnitz credible.
“The look in his eyes said he was broken, so I don’t think he was lying anymore,” Wade said, adding that “it was a tough case.”
Rechnitz showered top NYPD brass with gifts and donated more than $150,000 to Mayor de Blasio’s causes in exchange for access to City Hall.
As part of his effort to cultivate people in power, he brokered a deal in which Seabrook would steer union money into a hedge fund, Platinum Partners, in exchange for a kickback, Rechnitz testified.
Seabrook was frustrated that jurors believed Rechnitz — even though the mayor had called him “a liar and a felon.”
“Mr. de Blasio said Jona was a liar,” Seabrook said after the trial. “Now, all of a sudden, his story was OK — now Jona’s telling the truth.”
Rechnitz testified he pitched the kickback scheme to Seabrook in December 2013, during an opulent junket to the Dominican Republic. The corrupt businessman — who paid for the trip — described a bizarre late-night conversation in Seabrook’s bedroom.
Seabrook, Rechnitz testified, was drunk and weepy over the death of his dog. The union boss even showed the businessman the tattoo of the dog that he had on his body.
That was when Rechnitz, 35, proposed the payment scheme. “It’s time for Norman Seabrook to get paid,” Rechnitz recalled Seabrook saying.
The union investment eventually totaled $20 million. Rechnitz said he gave Seabrook a $60,000 kickback from Platinum in a Ferragamo bag in December 2014. The kickback was less than initially expected, so Rechnitz said he handed over the loot in Seabrook’s favorite luxury brand. A Platinum Partners founder, Murray Huberfeld, pleaded guilty to the $60,000 payout in May.
Platinum went bankrupt in 2016 and COBA lost all but $1 million of its investment — a detail omitted in the first trial.