By Jonathan Stempel
NEW YORK (Reuters) – A federal judge on Friday said the once-powerful former head of New York City’s correction officers union should be released from prison early after serving more than one-third of a 58-month sentence for bribery.
U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein in Manhattan said it would be “unjust” to keep Norman Seabrook behind bars for his full term after the sentence of co-defendant Murray Huberfeld, who co-founded the hedge fund firm Platinum Partners, was reduced to 13 months from 30 months.
Seabrook, 63, the former head of the Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association, has spent 21 months in prison after unsuccessfully appealing his August 2018 conviction.
Prosecutors said Seabrook steered $20 million of union members’ money to Platinum in exchange for a $60,000 cash bribe delivered in a Salvatore Ferragamo bag. About $19 million of the money was lost.
“The sentence Huberfeld originally received reflected an approximate equivalence between the conduct of the bribe giver, Huberfeld, and the bribe taker, Seabrook,” Hellerstein wrote.
Because Huberfeld’s sentence was shortened, “there is now an unjust disparity between Huberfeld’s and Seabrook’s sentences, which … justifies Seabrook’s compassionate release,” he added.
Seabrook has been housed at FCI Beckley, a prison in Beaver, West Virginia. He would face three years of supervised release after leaving prison.
The U.S. Attorney’s office in Manhattan, which prosecuted Seabrook, has 10 days to decide whether to appeal.
A spokesman for U.S. Attorney Damian Williams had no immediate comment. Roger Bennet Adler, a lawyer for Seabrook, said he was “gratified” by the decision.
Platinum’s main hedge funds went bankrupt in 2016. The correction officers union has about 20,000 active and retired members.
The case is U.S. v Seabrook, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 16-cr-00467.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Bill Berkrot)
