Hedge
Fund Briber and Philanthropist
Huberfeld Gets 30 Months in
SDNY Dispute on Restitution
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Periscope
video
NEW YORK CITY,
February 12 – Four days after
Norman Seabrook, former head
of the NYC Corrections
Officers union, was sentenced
to 58 months in prison by the
U.S. District Court for the
Southern District of New York
for taking bribes to steer
union money into the failed
Platinum hedge fund Platinum's
Murray Huberfeld received a 30
month sentence for his role in
the bribery. Both men will
remain free on bail pending
appeals.
The
SDNY courtroom was filled with
Huberfeld's family and
supporters, and the testimony
even from the government was
full of references to his
donations, many of them
anonymous. Huberfeld arranged
for the search and discovered
of a drowned boy in Australia.
He rehabilitated houses in Moncie,
New York for the large
families characteristic of the
Orthodox community - and some
resold them for big profits.
Huberfeld was also depicted as
having another person take the
registered representative test
for him, and reached two
settlements with the SEC.
"Why do
good people do bad things?"
SDNY Judge Alvin K.
Hellerstein mused, as he had
on February 8 before passing
sentence on Seabrook. He took
a similar 10 minute break.
Inner City Press rushed down
to get its electronics and do
a Periscope broadcast, here;
a similarly descending
clairvoyant predicted that
"long winded" Hellerstein
would come out at 30 months.
And so it was. He initially
ordered $19 million
restitution then stayed that,
too. Huberfeld's lawyers noted
they would argue on appeal
that only the $60,000 bribe
money was the appropriate
figure for restitution. They
said Huberfeld's recited
commitment to pay back $7
million to the union was based
on him remaining free. Now he
will remain free, at least
pending appeal.
Huberfeld's mother, who was in
the courtroom, is a Holocaust
survivor. Judge Hellerstein
described her hiding under an
animal trough and asked, How
can people be so cruel?
Huberfeld too teared up while
addressing hte court, asking
to be allowed to remain free
to serve people for example
through a soup kitchen program
he has been working with.
Judge Hellerstein called him
one of the most nobel
defendants to ever appear
before him - then imposed the
(delayed) 30 month sentence.
On the
government side prosecutor
Martin Bell brought up former
New York Knicks basketball
player Charles Oakley, who had
been in the courthouse
supporting Normal Seabrook on
February 8 (Inner City Press
photos on Alamy here,
Periscope below); he quoted
Knicks coach Pat Riley's book
about success being a danger
for a team and said it applied
to Huberfeld. This is a New
York case we will continue to
follow, along with other
cases. On February 8, a
victim's statement to the
court cited what it called
Seabrook's racist rant on
YouTube.
Afterward on Worth Street
Inner City Press asked
Seabrook about the YouTube
video - actually, an audio
file with an array of still
photographs. Seabrook
told Inner City Press they
doctored it to make him look
bad. His (actual) answer on
Periscope here
- and here
now audio file on YouTube,
here.
In the
SDNY courtroom it was
cognitive dissonance: Norman
Seabrook who rose from poverty
to head of a union with 10,000
members, who endorsed Michael
Bloomberg; Norman Seabrook who
asked for tens of thousands of
dollars to steer union money
into a Cayman Islands hedge
fund which failed.
Prosecutor
Martin Bell referred to a
Ferragamo bag visible in
Seabrook's house for months.
When Seabrook spoke he said it
was a gift with cigars, taking
a cigar out of his suit
jacket.
Seabrook's lawyer
Paul Shechtman
cited
Seabrook's
work on the
so-called
feces bill to
make throwing
excrement at a
corrections
officer a
felony. On the
hand Seabrook
was accused of
threatening
his board
members with
returning to
work in a
prison as
punishment,
and of going
after anyone
who dared run
against or
otherwise
oppose him.
Seabrook felt
that it was
his time to
get paid, that
he was bigger
than the cause
he began
fighting for,
Bell said.
Shechtman also
spoke after the sentencing.
Inner City Press asked him
about Judge
Alvin K.
Hellerstein's
seeming
reversal of an initial
position that it would be hard
to leave Seabrook out on bail
pending appeal. Shechtman
replied affably that he had to
win something, after the 58
month sentence. Video here.
An issue
on a appeal will be whether
Seabrook's second jury should
have heard about the $19
million loss.
Inner City
Press asked Shechtman about
the restitution, how much
would be paid by hedge funders
Murray Huberfeld, Jona
Rechnitz and perhaps (Judge
Hellerstein
indicated)
Jeremy Reichberg. Shechtman
told Inner City Press, If
Norman wins $19 million in the
lottery, we'll have about
that. For now, $2500 is due in
60 days, through the SDNY
Clerk, for the union. We'll
have more on this.
Exiting the courthouse after
Seabrook, with a bag of Utz
potato chips and a copy of the
Daily News was New York Knicks
icon Charles Oakley. He said
that there are others who need
to be locked up as well, and
that the Knicks need better
players. There was no
rebuttal. Periscope video here.
Upcoming in the
SDNY is a recently-filed
complaint by the Bangladesh
Central Bank for the $81
million hacking of its funds,
which were then wired through
the Federal Reserve Bank of
New York, a case
that Inner City Press will
cover. Times change. Watch
this site.
***
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