New York Councilman Charged With Money Laundering

RAY RIVERA and WILLIAM K. RASHBAUM The New York Times 02/10/2010 04:38

City Councilman Larry B. Seabrook, a fixture in Bronx Democratic politics for more than two decades, was charged on Tuesday with money laundering, extortion and fraud in a series of schemes that included helping a close associate win a contract to install boilers in the new Yankee Stadium and siphoning hundreds of thousands of dollars in city money to himself, friends and family members.

Most of the charges in the 13-count federal indictment revolve around Mr. Seabrook’s use of Council discretionary funds, known as earmarks, to finance a string of nonprofit groups that city and federal authorities say ultimately did little for the communities they were supposed to aid.

Prosecutors say Mr. Seabrook closely controlled the groups’ budgets and personnel decisions, helping them to win city contracts and using the money to pay more than $500,000 in salaries and consulting fees to his female companion, his brother, two sisters and other family members.

Mr. Seabrook, 58, and others were able to do this, prosecutors contend, in part by repeatedly inflating expense claims to the city on the part of the nonprofit groups, including rent costs. From 2002 to 2009, Mr. Seabrook directed more than $1 million to the groups while never disclosing his close affiliation with them.

The conduct alleged in the indictment ranges from the ambitious to the nearly silly: from extorting payments from a close associate to help win the boiler contract to altering a $7 receipt for a bagel sandwich and diet soda so that Mr. Seabrook was reimbursed $177 for the purchase.

Mr. Seabrook, a former assemblyman and state senator who in November won re-election for his third Council term, pleaded not guilty.

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