Feb.09, 2010, 9:12 AM
City Councilman Larry B. Seabrook is expected to turn himself in to federal authorities in Manhattan on Tuesday to face a 13-count indictment accusing him of money laundering, extortion and fraud, a person briefed on the matter said.
Mr. Seabrook, a three-term Bronx councilman and former state senator, has been under investigation for months in relation to city contracts he helped secure for various Bronx nonprofit organizations with which he was closely affiliated. It was unclear Tuesday morning whether the charges in the indictment, expected to be unsealed later in the day, are related to his activity with the nonprofit groups.
A federal grand jury in recent weeks has also been looking at various contracts that Mr. Seabrook helped secure for a Bronx businessman and close associate, according to people familiar with the investigation.
Mr. Seabrook’s lawyer, Murray Richman, said he was contacted by prosecutors early Tuesday morning and was asked to surrender his client for arrest. Mr. Richman said he was told that Mr. Seabrook would be charged in a 13-count indictment that included charges of money laundering, larceny and conspiracy.
The lawyer said he had not seen the indictment and did not have enough information to comment about the charges.
“Once I have been able to review the indictment and all of the allegations I will be able to comment more fully,” Mr. Richman said.
People briefed on the matter said the charges against Mr. Seabrook include money laundering, conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, mail and wire fraud, extortion and receiving an unlawful gratuity.
Several of the people said the charges stemmed from Mr. Seabrook’s alleged involvement in helping a boiler company to obtain contracts.
In June, federal investigators issued subpoenas to landlords who leased space to Mr. Seabrook and several nonprofit groups closely linked to him after a report in The New York Times that the groups had billed New York City more than $100,000 in inflated rent payments.
The Times reported that in at least two cases, Mr. Seabrook rented buildings from landlords at one price and struck side deals with the landlords to share the space, for an additional fee, with a nonprofit organization he founded. The organization, the African-American Bronx Unity Day Parade, then sublet the space at far higher rates to three other nonprofit groups that were run by the councilman’s associates and funded through his Council discretionary funds, city records and interviews showed. Two of the nonprofit groups also billed the city for a building they did not occupy.
From July 2004 through March 2007, the city paid more than $156,900 in rent reimbursements for space that cost the parade organization only $40,000 to rent, The Times found.
The inquiry appeared to be an expansion of an investigation under way by the city’s Department of Investigation and the United States attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York, which have been looking into the spending practices of nonprofit groups that receive money through the City Council and other government agencies. The inquiry has led to the arrests of two Council aides and two nonprofit officials. Both agencies declined comment on Tuesday, and calls to Mr. Seabrook’s office were not returned.