Benjamin Weiser and Zoe Greenberg

For two decades, he had the ear of mayors, governors and lawmakers from City Hall to Albany to Washington. He was an unapologetic champion for his members and exerted extraordinary control over the city’s Correction Department, shaping policy and even influencing key management appointments in the city’s jails.

But Friday, Seabrook stood before a federal judge in Manhattan and was sentenced to 58 months in prison, the final chapter in a remarkable fall from grace that began when federal prosecutors started asking questions about his handling of the union’s funds.

Seabrook, 58, was convicted in August in a corruption trial. The evidence showed that he had steered $20 million from the union, the Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association, into a risky hedge fund, in exchange for a promised kickback worth more than $100,000.

Ultimately, prosecutors said, Seabrook was delivered $60,000 in bills crammed inside a designer bag purchased from his favorite luxury goods store, Salvatore Ferragamo.

“It’s time Norman Seabrook got paid,” Seabrook had told Jona S. Rechnitz, a real estate developer who had arranged for the payoff, according to Rechnitz’s testimony at the trial in U.S. District Court. Rechnitz had pleaded guilty and became a cooperating witness for the government.

Before imposing the sentence, Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein said that he believed Seabrook “was blinded by his own sense of his own importance, by his desire to benefit himself after benefiting others for so long.”

The hedge fund, Platinum Partners, ultimately went bankrupt, and the union lost $19 million of its investment. The hedge fund’s former chairman, Murray Huberfeld, who has pleaded guilty to conspiracy and is to be sentenced next week, has agreed to voluntarily return $7 million to the union, court filings showed.

Seabrook was also ordered to pay restitution of $19 million, although the judge acknowledged it was not likely his income would ever produce much savings.

The union said in a statement Friday that it would continue to “fight until every penny is recovered and our members are made whole.”

Before he was sentenced, Seabrook made an impassioned and defiant statement to the court, saying he never intended for union members “to lose a dime” on the hedge fund. “I never betrayed my members, judge, never,” he said.

“My life’s journey may have been interrupted, but it’s not over until God says it’s over,” he added.

Later, speaking outside the courthouse, Seabrook said he would appeal his case and win. Asked about his lack of contrition, he said, “How can you be remorseful for something that you didn’t do?”

Seabrook’s lawyer, Paul Shechtman, said the sentence was harsher than he had hoped for, “but the most important thing is there’s a real viable appeal.” Seabrook’s first trial, in 2017, ended with a hung jury.

Seabrook’s trials drew widespread attention, partly because of testimony that touched on corruption in the New York Police Department and on Mayor Bill de Blasio’s fundraising efforts. Prosecutors had asked Hellerstein for a slightly longer sentence, of 63 months.

“This was a crime of betrayal,” a prosecutor, Martin S. Bell, argued Friday. He said Seabrook came to believe he was “bigger than the people he represented,” adding: “He was owed. He was entitled.”

Geoffrey S. Berman, the U.S. attorney in Manhattan, said in a statement: “Tens of thousands of hardworking correction officers once looked to Norman Seabrook as their leader and champion. Seabrook now stands convicted of betraying them for a bag full of cash and the promise of more.”

Seabrook’s lawyers, in a memo arguing for a lenient sentence, had depicted him as a man who had doggedly worked his way up from a childhood spent in deep poverty in the South Bronx.

Hellerstein praised Seabrook’s rise, saying it was something to be looked upon with approval. He also said Seabrook had done “major good in his life,” citing how correction officers had achieved parity with police officers and firefighters.

“There is a great mystery that no district judge has ever been able to solve, which is why people who have done enormous good commit crimes,” Hellerstein said.

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/08/nyregion/seabrook-sentencing.html" id="cd8d8ac2-ed1b-3e06-a70e-0864230eba78">The New York Times</a>.

NEW YORK — Five years ago, Norman Seabrook was one of the most politically powerful figures in New York City, the longtime leader of the 20,000-member union representing correction officers.

Fallen Chief of New York City Correction Union Is Sentenced to Nearly 5 Years in Bribery Trial

For two decades, he had the ear of mayors, governors and lawmakers from City Hall to Albany, New York, to Washington. He was a blunt advocate for his members and exerted extraordinary control over the city’s Correction Department, shaping policy and even influencing key management appointments in the city’s jails.

But on Friday, Seabrook stood before a federal judge and was sentenced to 58 months in prison, the final chapter in a remarkable fall from grace that began when federal prosecutors started asking questions about his handling of the union’s funds.

Seabrook, 58, was eventually convicted, in August, in a corruption trial. Evidence at his trial showed that he had steered $20 million from the union, the Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association, into a risky hedge fund, in exchange for a promised kickback worth more than $100,000.

“It’s time Norman Seabrook got paid,” the union leader had told Jona S. Rechnitz, a wealthy real estate developer who had arranged for the payoff, according to Rechnitz’s testimony in the trial.

The hedge fund ultimately went bankrupt and the union lost $19 million of its investment, although the hedge fund’s former chairman, Murray Huberfeld, who pleaded guilty last year to conspiracy, has agreed to voluntarily return $7 million to the union, court filings show.

Before he was sentenced, Seabrook made an impassioned and defiant statement to the judge, saying he never intended for union members “to lose a dime” on the hedge fund.

“My life’s journey may have been interrupted, but it’s not over until God says it’s over,” he said.

Seabrook’s trial drew widespread attention, partly because of testimony that touched on corruption in the New York Police Department and on Mayor Bill de Blasio’s fundraising efforts.

Prosecutors had asked the judge, Alvin K. Hellerstein of U.S. District Court in Manhattan, to sentence Seabrook to five years and three months in prison. His lawyers had argued that “a harsh sentence was not needed to serve justice.”

Seabrook’s first trial, in 2017, ended with a hung jury.

It was in 2013 that Rechnitz traveled with Seabrook to the Dominican Republic and suggested to Seabrook that he could make money by personally investing the union’s money in the hedge fund, Platinum Partners, according to testimony by Rechnitz, who pleaded guilty and testified for the government as a cooperating witness.

The union’s lawyers expressed significant concern about the investment, the government said in its sentencing memorandum to the judge. But over the next year, prosecutors said, the union, at Seabrook’s instigation, invested the $20 million, including $5 million drawn from the union’s basic operating account that serves as the union’s safety net.

Rechnitz later told Seabrook that the fund had underperformed and he would only get $60,000.

Norman Seabrook Was Once a Power-Broker in New York, But Now He Is Going to Prison

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Benjamin Weiser and Zoe Greenberg

Articles written by the author

Fallen Chief of New York City Correction Union Is Sentenced to Nearly 5 Years in Bribery Trial

Norman Seabrook Was Once a Power-Broker in New York, But Now He Is Going to Prison