Thursday, June 09, 2016

After another big bust, Bharara says he's finding corruption 'everywhere we look'. The U.S. attorney charges union chief Norman Seabrook with getting a $60,000 cash kickback .

Crain's New York reports:
New York's anti-corruption crusader Preet Bharara on Wednesday charged longtime correction officers' union head Norman Seabrook with fraud, alleging he took a $60,000 kickback for orchestrating a union pension-fund investment.

Seabrook steered $20 million from his union's $81 million retirement fund to a hedge fund run by Murray Huberfeld, according to court documents. In return, Seabrook allegedly received $60,000 in cash delivered in a Salvatore Ferragamo bag. Huberfeld was also arrested. Representatives for both did not immediately reply to requests for comment.

The intermediary between the two men was a confidential witness identified by The New York Times as Jona Rechnitz, a central figure in a probe of corruption in the city Police Department. Rechnitz has also drawn scrutiny for his contributions to Mayor Bill de Blasio's campaign and nonprofit group, which is also under federal investigation, according to The Wall Street Journal.

"Look, I wish I never met the guy," de Blasio said of Rechnitz at a press conference Wednesday. The mayor's office confirmed in April that it received subpoenas from Bharara, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District for New York. The mayor has said he hardly knew Rechnitz, but the donor's contributions did earn him a spot on de Blasio's transition team in late 2013.

In his typically subdued manner, Bharara told a press conference that he intends to "be aggressive as ever" in his office's crusade against corruption, adding that "it is too bad that we seem to find it everywhere we look."
Imagine that.