A crooked ex-labor leader claims he shouldn’t have to pay back the $20 million he plowed into a troubled hedge fund in exchange for a $60,000 bribe — because he didn’t know it was a bad investment.
Disgraced former union chief Norman Seabrook on Tuesday asked a federal judge to spare him from having to make restitution to the Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association, which he led for 21 years until he got busted on corruption charges in 2016.
In court papers, defense lawyer Paul Schectman said execs at the since-defunct Platinum Partners hedge fund were solely to blame for its collapse and the loss of the union’s money — including $15 million in cash earmarked for pensions for city jail guards.
Seabrook — who funneled the funds into Platinum over the course of several months in 2014 — “was unaware that more than two years later the fund would fail” and he “should not be held responsible,” Schectman wrote.
In exchange for making the lousy investments, Seabrook was rewarded with $60,000 in cash, delivered inside🌃 a Ferragamo bag by developer Jona Rechnitz, a fundraiser for Mayor Bill de Blaiso ꦇwho later cut a cooperation deal with the feds.
Rechnitz testified that he convinced Seabrook to invest in Platinum during a night of heavy drinking 𒁃on an all-e👍xpenses-paid trip to the Dominican Republic.
In August, Seabrook was convicted of honest-services wire fraud and conspiracy, after an earlier trial ended i🅺n a hung jury.
He’s scheduled for sentencing on Feb. 8, and Tuesday’s court filing also asked Manhattan federal Judge Alvin Hellerstein to slap him with less than the minimum 4¼ years he faces in prison under federal guidelines.
Schectman claimed it was “beyond dispute” that Seabrook, 58, “dedicated himself to his officers, fought on their behalf, and achieved extraordinary results for them.”
“The reputation that he worked so hard to create is forever tarnished,” Schectman wrote.
“He lives with the shame of knowing that the union’s annuity fund lost money because of an investment he promoted.”
Following Seabrook’s conviction, his son-in-law set up a GoFundMe page to raise $100,000 to help Seabrook’s family “in this time of need,” but supporters have so far coughed up less than $20,000.