PUTTING ON A HAPPY FACE: Ex-Correction Officers Benevolent Association President Norman Seabrook hardly looked like a man who had just been sentenced to nearly five years in prison when he emerged from the Federal Courthouse in lower Manhattan. Prior to being given the prison term, he stated to Judge Alvin Hellerstein, ‘I will emerge stronger and better. I will find a way to continue to fight for working men and women.’
The Chief-Leader/Michel Friang
Former Correction Officers Benevolent Association President Norman Seabrook was sentenced Feb. 8 to 58 months in Federal prison for accepting a $60,000 bribe in return for investing $20 million in union money in a hedge fund that eventually went bankrupt, with the Judge describing him as “a force for good” who had committed “the sin of hubris.”
The man who had led his union for 21 years, among other things winning correction officers who retired with at least 20 years on the job a  $12,000-a-year Variable Supplements Fund payment, did not admit guilt and told U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein, “I never betrayed my members, Judge. Never.”
50 Supporters vs. 3 ‘Victims’
Roughly 50 supporters of Mr. Seabrook—family, fellow correction officers and people involved with a Brooklyn church where he had mentored young men in recent years—sat in the 14th-floor courtroom. But there were also three correction officers who spoke as victims of the scheme hatched by Mr. Seabrook, Platinum Partners then-managing partner Murray Huberfeld, and Jona Rechnitz, who wound up a key witness against Mr. Seabrook, ranking police officers accused of corruption in separate schemes, and two of his business partners—Mr. Huberfeld and Jeremy Reichberg.
One ex-CO, Celestino Monclova, attempted to counter the image painted by the former union leader’s lawyer, Paul Shectman, of Mr. Seabrook as someone “who grew up with nothing except for love of family and became one of the most-successful labor leaders in the city.”
Mr. Monclova called Mr. Seabrook “a greedy and manipulating bully” and said he intimidated other members of the COBA board to such a degree that neither the current president, Elias Husamudeen, nor the treasurer, Mike Maiello, notified law-enforcement authorities when they learned about a $5 million investment he had made from the union’s general fund without getting the board’s approval.
Mr. Husamudeen during the trial last summer testified that he had demanded of Mr. Seabrook in June 2014 after learning of the improper investment in violating of the union’s bylaws, “What the f--- are you doing?” But Mr. Monclova, who ran against Mr. Seabrook in a 2012 union election and faulted him for not adequately representing him when he was subsequently fired by the Correction Department, said he and Mr. Maiello failed to take further action because “they feared being transferred to serve in a jail” if they incurred Mr. Seabrook’s wrath. That concern was great enough, he said, that “they risked being criminally charged themselves” for not reporting that unauthorized investment.
Thought Gamble Was Sound
Mr. Shechtman, in seeking leniency for his client, argued that Mr. Seabrook did not believe at the time that he made that investment, or two other investments totaling $15 million for which he did gain board approval, that COBA would lose money, saying that it should not be held against him in sentencing that $19 million of the money was lost as a result of Platinum Partners filing for bankruptcy protection not long after the arrests in June 2016 of the union leader and Mr. Huberfeld.
“Norman’s investment adviser told Norman and the board that it was a good investment,” Mr. Shechtman said. “It turned out not to be…Norman thought he was investing in a five-star fund run by two billionaires.”
He was taken in, his attorney said, by Mr. Rechnitz, who led him to believe that he owned two of the city’s most-valuable buildings in the Wall St. area, as well as a yacht. In fact, Mr. Rechnitz at one point managed those two buildings, and the yacht had been rented on the day he took Mr. Seabrook on it.
Mr. Shechtman said the loss of members’ money “will haunt him his whole life. But it should not affect his sentence.”
Judge Hellerstein disagreed, saying that the bribe Mr. Seabrook received raised questions about whether he let his judgment be colored by the money paid to him by Mr. Rechnitz on Mr. Huberfeld’s behalf.
‘Felt He was Owed’
Assistant U.S. Attorney Martin Bell, after acknowledging that for much of his tenure running the union, Mr. Seabrook “was the best thing that happened to the Correction Officers Benevolent Association and its members,” said that he came to believe that “he was bigger than the people he represented, who had invested their trust in him. He felt he was owed,” citing a conversation he had with Mr. Rechnitz in a hotel room in the Dominican Republic in December 2013—not long before he convinced fellow board members to make the initial $10-million investment—in which he allegedly declared, “It’s time Norman Seabrook got paid.”
The sentencing guidelines for the crime, given that the union leader had no prior record, called for him to receive between 51 and 63 months in prison. Mr. Bell, in asking that he be given the top term within those guidelines, told Judge Hellerstein, “It would be perverse, your honor, I submit, for Norman Seabrook’s accomplishments to get him off the hook.”
But the Judge said he had to consider the reality that Mr. Seabrook “has done major good in his life for people who entrusted their welfare to him…Mr. Seabrook, I believe, was blinded by his own sense of self-importance and a desire to benefit himself.”
He allowed Mr. Seabrook to continue to remain free on bail after Mr. Shechtman said the union leader would, in addition to the bond previously posted, put up his house as further collateral, pending the outcome of his planned appeal of the verdict. The attorney said a key element of the appeal would focus on the fact that, after ruling during an earlier trial in the fall of 2017 that ended in a hung jury that the $19-million loss the union suffered from the hedge-fund investments would not be permitted as evidence, Judge Hellerstein had allowed it to be introduced during last summer’s case.
The Judge also ordered that Mr. Seabrook be liable for a portion of that $19-million loss in the form of restitution to COBA, along with Mr. Huberfeld, Mr. Rechnitz, and “possibly” Mr. Reichberg. Noting that those three men—particularly Mr. Huberfeld—were better off financially than the union leader, he ordered Mr. Seabrook to pay $10,000 within the next 60 days, and then 10 percent of his income once he completes his prison term and begins 1-to-3 years of supervised release.
Sought Financial Mercy
When Mr. Shechtman responded that Mr. Seabrook—who as COBA president was reportedly paid $300,000 a year—at this point would have to borrow to come up with even $5,000 within 60 days, the Judge reduced the payment to $2,500.
Mr. Huberfeld, who is awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty last spring to a reduced charge, recently agreed to pay $7 million to COBA to settle a lawsuit it had brought against him individually. The union has continuing litigation against other partners within the failed hedge fund.
Mr. Husamudeen released a statement following sentencing in which he declined to comment directly on Mr. Seabrook, his longtime union colleague and friend until he provided damaging testimony against him that, in the second trial, undoubtedly played a role in overcoming  the doubts about Mr. Rechnitz’s credibility that several jurors expressed following their verdict.
He did say, “From day one, our main priority has been the recovery of our investments that were lost as a result of the egregious acts committed by the individuals associated with this fraudulent scheme, a scheme that betrayed the trust of every single New York City Correction Officer. To date, we have successful recovered $7 million, or 40% of the monies lost, which gives us confidence about our prospects to recover the remaining investments.”      
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