Bronx Councilman Seabrook busted on fraud and extortion charges

Yer out!

Three-term City Councilman Larry Seabrook was charged today on extortion, fraud and money laundering charges -- including shaking down a Bronx boiler company who had received a contract from the Yankees -- after he was caught stealing as part of an ongoing probe stemming from a slush fund scandal.

The feds claim Seabrook, who has been a member of the City Council since 2001, shook down the unnamed company for $50,000 after they were awarded a lucrative contract by the Bronx Bombers to install boilers at the new Yankee Stadium.

The company was select to furnish two boilers for $283,000 for the team's ballpark.

Thomas Hinton

Larry Seabrook

Seabrook (D-Bronx) allegedly took the money, in the form of checks that he endorsed, after he'd lobbied on the company's behalf to get the contract -- then used the cash to pay for parking tickets and credit card bills, according to the indictment unsealed today.

INDICTMENT AGAINST SEABROOK (PDF)

"The New York Yankees have cooperated fully in this investigation ... [and] that here is no allegation of wrongdoing on part of anyone within the Yankees organization," the team said in a statement. "The New York Yankees are simply a fact witness."

The Bronx lawmaker has been under investigation by the US Attorney's Office in Manhattan and the city Department of Investigation in connection to contracts he helped secure for various Bronx community organizations, authorities said.

"In reality, Seabrook controlled and directed these organizations," according to the indictment.

The 13-count indictment -- outlined in a 66-page federal indictment -- alleges that between 2002 and last year, Seabrook:

-- Tried to steer $2.5 million of so-called "discretionary funds" set aside by the City Council to non-profit organizations that he controlled. About $1 million got to the groups.

-- Inflated these groups' expenses -- including rent payments -- and then handed the difference to family members, including his wife, and other associates.

Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bharara called the scam Seabrook's "own corrupt, City Council-funded, friends and family plan."

-- Took illegal payments from the boiler company to a third party -- the North East Bronx Community Democratic Club and the Bronx African-American Chamber of Commerce -- between July 2006 and April 2009 in the form of 10 checks.

-- Doctored receipts for expenses that he had not incurred. In one instance, a receipt for $7, the cost of a bagel and soda that had been delivered to him at City Hall, was changed to show that he'd spent $177.

-- Paid $500,000 in salaries and consulting fees to his girlfriend, brother, sisters and nephews.

Seabrook pleaded not guilty and was released on $500,000 bond secured by his condo in Albany. He ignored questions from reporters while waiting to sign the bond.

"If you read the indictment with an open mind, it may not be as simple as it sounds," said his lawyer Murray Richman. "We ... deny all the allegations."

Richman said Seabrook will "absolutely" not resign his council seat.

Seabrook is the first African-American lawmaker to hold office in three separate legislative branches -- the Senate, Assembly and City Council -- after his election to the City Council in 2001.

Seabrook's indictment comes after another lawmaker, City Councilman Miguel Martinez (D-Manhattan), pleaded guilty last July to federal corruption charges for pocketing $106,000 in taxpayer money earmarked for community organizations.

In pleading guilty, the upper Manhattan Democrat became the first city elected official convicted in an ongoing probe into the council's slush-fund scandal, which The Post broke in 2008.

Martinez was sentenced to five years in prison after he admitted to stealing public funds by conspiring with unidentified accomplices to file bogus invoices that were reimbursed out of his office's annual expense budget.

"All of us in the City Council take the deeply troubling allegations against Council member Larry Seabrook very seriously," said Council Speaker Christine Quinn (D-Manhattan). "If Council member Seabrook's alleged crimes are proven to be true, they display a galling abuse of the trust and confidence placed in public officials. I am confident our judicial system will move forward with appropriate action."