Seabrook on Federal Corruption Charges
By NY Government Examiner and Associated Press
A Bronx City Council Member surrendered Tues-day to face federal charges that he tried to cheat the city of at least $2.5 million in council discretionary funds, funneling hundreds of thousands of dollars to his girlfriend and relatives and charging the city $177 for a bagel sandwich, the Associated Press reported last Tuesday.
The charges were contained in a Manhattan indictment against 58-year-old Democrat Council-man Larry B. Seabrook, who has represented the North Bronx since 2002 and was once a state senator.
U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara noted an abundance of “For Sale” signs in the city as a result of the sputtering economy.
“City Hall should not be one of them,” said Bharara. One charge alleges that, between July 2006 and April 2009, Seabrook solicited $50,000 in payments from a Bronx boiler company executive after Seabrook lobbied the New York Yankees to select the company to furnish two boilers for $283,000 for the new Yankee Stadium.
In recent years, federal authorities and the city’s Department of Investigation have been looking into how Council Members funnel money to nonprofits. From 2002 through 2009, Seabrook tried to direct at least $2.5 million of council discretionary funds to nonprofit organizations that he controlled, the indictment alleged.
The indictment said Seabrook negotiated the nonprofit organizations’ leases, created their budgets, made their personnel decisions and knew the groups were not doing enough legitimate work to justify the funds.
It said he paid about $530,000 in salary and “consulting” fees over the seven-year span to his girlfriend, his brother, two sisters and his nephews, among others. The indictment also accused Seabrook of inflating the expenses of the organizations, including what they paid in rent, and of making other misrepresentations and material omissions to New York City and the Council so he could continue funding the groups.
For instance, Seabrook allegedly submitted a number of forged or altered receipts, including a doctored receipt for a $7 bagel sandwich and diet beverage delivered to City Hall that made it look like it had cost about $177, the indictment said.
In all, Seabrook managed to get at least $1.2 million of the $2.5 million he requested for the organizations sent to them, the indictment said. Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn said, “All of us in the City Council take the deeply troubling allegations against Council Member Larry Seabrook very seriously.”
Asked about the matter this afternoon, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said that he hadn’t yet read the 13 federal indictments handed down against Seabrook.”I haven’t read the indictment yet and I don’t know if the allegations in the indictment are true,” said Bloomberg. “I think that the City Council has changed an awful lot in the last few years to make the process of allocating City Funds more transparent and much more in keeping with the needs of the city.
I think that the City Council deserves a lot of credit for moving forward – making things more transparent.” Late last year City Cuncil Member Miguel Martinez (D – Manhattan/Bronx) resigned for misollacotating city funds. Martinez was recently ordered to make full restitution and sentenced to five years in prison.
Seabrook’s office did not return our calls seeking comment for this story.
