City Cooncil member Larry Seabrook faces federal criminal charges

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City Council member Larry Seabrook faces federal criminal charges
BY Alison Gendar
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Tuesday, February 9th 2010, 10:08 AM


City Council member Larry Seabrook is facing federal criminal charges in an indictment expected Tuesday afternoon, sources said.


City Council member Larry Seabrook is facing federal criminal charges in an indictment expected Tuesday afternoon, sources said.

Details were unavailable about the nature of the charges against the three-term city official, a former state senator.

People briefed on the matter told the New York Times the charges include money laundering, conspiracy to commit mail fraud mail and wire fraud, mail and wire fraud, extortion and receiving an unlawful gratuity.

The indictment apparently stems from a joint city-state probe of City Council funding of non-profit groups. Seabrook was already in custody after his arrest, sources said.

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Divorce a secret: Indicted City Council member Larry Seabrook didn't tell wife about split for years
BY Barry Paddock, Alison Gendar and Larry Mcshane
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS

Thursday, February 11th 2010, 4:00 AM


Councilman Larry Seabrook failed to tell ex-wife LaVerne (below with Seabrook in happier times) they were divorced.



Long before the $177 bagel, there was the secret divorce.

When accused City Council crook Larry Seabrook legally dumped his wife in 1993, he skipped one important detail - sharing the news with her.

The stealth split remained a secret for years as his duped spouse shared a bed and a Bronx home with Seabrook and even co-signed a $140,000 loan for him.

Despite the deception, ex-wife LaVerne Seabrook, 64, told the Daily News yesterday that her one-time spouse - now charged in a seven-year run of greed and corruption - was basically a nice guy.

"He's a politician," she said outside her modest Bronx home. "It happens. Do I believe it? No. When we were together, he was honest."

Not completely, though.

When her husband ran for the state Senate in 2000, it was revealed then that Seabrook had filed and won a divorce seven years earlier - and never told LaVerne.

Six weeks after the 1993 decree, Seabrook persuaded her to co-sign a bank loan to buy a residence near Albany for his use when the Legislature was in session.

The house where the couple lived was used as collateral. Bank documents listed the pair as married.

The 58-year-old pol - who also owns a Co-op City apartment and a home in South Carolina - continued filing a joint federal tax return and sleeping with his ex-wife.

He finally moved out in 1996, claiming he had stuck around until the couple's daughter finished high school.

"That's real fambly values," Seabrook insisted a decade ago.

Federal prosecutors described Seabrook's values differently this week, accusing him of running a "corrupt, City Council-funded friends and family plan."

Prosecutors said he collected $44,000 in bogus expenses, $50,000 in shakedown money from a new Yankee Stadium contractor and more than $100,000 in inflated rents.

He submitted bogus or inflated expenses - including a doctored receipt for a $177 bagel lunch - to the North East Bronx Community Democratic Club and kept the reimbursement cash, prosecutors charged.

He funneled about $1.2 million in City Council discretionary "slush" funds to nonprofits he controlled: the Northeast Bronx Redevelopment Corp., the Bronx African-American Chamber of Commerce, the New York African-American Legal & Civic Hall of Fame and the Mercy Foundation, the indictment says.

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Already indicted City Councilman Larry Seabrook now slapped with lawsuit from law firm
BY Jose Martinez
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Saturday, June 26th 2010, 4:00 AM


Bronx City Council member Larry Seabrook is under indictment in a federal corruption case.


The slippery Bronx politico charged with billing taxpayers $177 for a $7 bagel-and-soda combo is being sued by a law firm that wants its dough.

City Councilman Larry Seabrook, who is under indictment in a federal corruption case for a series of alleged scams and shakedowns, is accused of walking away from a nearly $30,000 bill from Genova, Burns & Giantomasi.

The veteran politician - often referred to as "Cash & Carry Larry" - hired the firm in 2003, when the city Campaign Finance Board was examining his financial records following his election to the City Council.

The suit, filed in Manhattan Supreme Court, says the former state senator and assemblyman owes the firm $29,635 for ensuring he was in compliance with the city's Campaign Finance Act.

Seabrook used the firm's services from 2003 to 2005, says the suit, which also targets his brother Oliver.

Federal prosecutors in February slammed Seabrook with a long list of charges that include lining the pockets of his brother, his wife and his girlfriend and putting in a $177 expense claim on a bagel and soda that cost him $7.

Seabrook and the law firm did not return calls.