(Photo: Facebook)

Councilman Larry Seabrook, who was convicted last July on 9 counts of wire and fraud charges, was sentenced in federal court today to 5 years in prison. Upon his conviction, Mr. Seabrook was immediately expelled from the legislative chamber.

"Councilman Larry Seabrook sacrificed the public trust on the altar of greed," U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said in a statement. "He was a flagrant and serial abuser of City Council discretionary funds in a far too familiar New York tale of corruption," Mr. Bharara said of Mr. Seabrook. "Today’s sentence finally vindicates the interests of the constituents whose trust he so casually violated by his fraud. We remain committed to making those who are corrupted by power pay the price, and the public can expect more arrests of politicians who have not learned this lesson.”

The evidence against Mr. Seabrook infamously included a receipt for a $7 bagel sandwich that prosecutors said had been doctored to put the cost at $177, enabling him to earn a profit off of the reimbursement.

Additionally, Mr. Seabrook was ordered to pay more than $619,000 in restitution to New York City and to forfeit another $418, 000. He was also ordered to pay a $100 special assessment fee.

View the full sentencing statement from the U.S. Attorney's Office of the Southern District of New York below:

Andy King (Photo: Facebook)

Former Councilman Larry Seabrook was convicted of corruption earlier today, and pursuant to the rules governing the City Council, he was instantly removed from office. Just moments ago, Mayor Michael Bloomerg declared the special election's date to replace Mr. Seabrook will coincide with the 2012 general election on November 6th -- but that doesn't mean candidates aren't already stepping up.

Andy King, a former labor organizer with 1199SEIU, told us he definitely plans to run in this upcoming special election. Mr. King performed strongly running against Mr. Seabrook in 2009, taking in over 30% of the vote to the incumbent's 55%, which, combined with his connections to labor, may make him one of the frontrunners for the seat.

"The chief issue in our district is the problems that we're having with our young people, education of our youth and development of opportunity," Mr. King said of his motivation for running. "If we can get it right with our young people ... a lot of the social issues that we have tend to handle themselves."

Mr. King said although he hadn't spoken to Bronx Democratic Party head Carl Heastie today, he expects to at a fundraiser for Assemblyman Eric Stevenson this evening and described his campaign as being quickly put together.

"As we talk now I'm in the middle of emails and conversations with folks, especially [checking with] SEIU and DC folks who have committed to me in the last couple weeks, that they would be with me in this journey," Mr. King told us. "We're tying all of the knots up."

And, unlike a state legislative vacancy where the parties handpick their candidates, there will be an open election here for any candidate to toss his or her hat into the ring, which multiple current or aspiring politicians are bound to do.

As Mr. King said, "That's just the nature of the environment when it comes to an open seat."

(Photo: Facebook)

Bronx Councilman Larry Seabrook, who ended up in a deadlocked jury last December as he was facing 12 charges, was retried and found guilty on 9 of those charges earlier today, which reportedly include bribery, money laundering and fraud.

“Councilman Larry Seabrook abused the power of his office to influence public contracts and to fund his own corrupt friends and family plan,” US Attorney Preet Bharara said, according to the New York Post.

He continued, “Today’s conviction ensures that the councilman will pay for betraying the public trust. Rooting out public corruption and restoring the public’s faith in honest government remains a vital mission of this office.”

The Associated Press has more:

"Prosecutors had accused the 61-year-old Democrat of misdirecting hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxpayer money meant for community projects.

The evidence included a receipt for a $7 bagel sandwich that allegedly had been doctored to put the cost at $177. Prosecutors accused Seabrook of using it to make a phony reimbursement request to a political club he controlled."

Larry Seabrook (Photo: Facebook)

Federal prosecutors are preparing to retry Bronx Councilman Larry Seabrook in June on charges of bribery, money laundering and fraud after a mistrial in December. In the meantime, Mr. Seabrook doesn't want to talk about the case against him.

"Oh, I'm not going to talk about that," he told The Politicker after Comptroller and likely 2013 mayoral candidate John Liu's State of the City address at City College today.

However, our conversation with Mr. Seabrook didn't end there.

We pressed on and asked the councilman if he felt confident about his chances of acquittal.

"I'm not going to talk about that," he said.

Mr. Liu is also dealing with legal troubles, one of his fundraisers was indicted yesterday on fraud charges for allegedly using a system of "straw donors" to funnel $16,000 in illegal contributions to Mr. Liu. Both Mr. Seabrook and Mr. Liu have come under fire in the press for their scandals. We inquired whether Mr. Seabrook felt they have been mistreated by the media.

"John Liu had a fantastic speech, it was a fantastic speech, a good speech of what John Liu has had," Mr. Seabrook said. "I won't make those decisions about that, you're a better judge of that than me, but John Liu had a fantastic speech."

Mr. Seabrook may have enjoyed Mr. Liu's speech, but he's not ready to endorse Mr. Liu or any of the other probable 2013 mayoral candidates.

"I haven't even thought about that," he said.

Though he clearly wasn't in a chatty mood, there was one topic Mr. Seabrook was glad to discuss. We asked what he thought about Jeremy Lin, the Knicks point guard who recently sparked a seven game winning streak, citywide media frenzy and was a major motif in Mr. Liu's speech.

"I think he's a fantastic, phenomenal player and he shows what teamwork is all about," Mr. Seabrook said. "You win when you do teamwork in basketball."

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Larry Seabrook (Photo: New York City Council)

Bronx Councilman Larry Seabrook is breathing a bit easier after the government's first attempt to prosecute him in corruption charges resulted in a mistrial. "There's a tremendous amount of relief, but the most important thing is being able to go back to the district and do the work that I've been doing for 30 years in terms of serving the constituents," Councilman Seabrook said in an interview on NY1's "Inside City Hall" last night.

Councilman Seabrook, who's accused of taking $40,000 in donations in exchange for favors, forging expense receipts and funneling more than $1 million to a network of non-profit companies he controlled that employed his family members and associates, defended his work by comparing himself to Governor Andrew Cuomo and JFK. "I think it was a president named John Kennedy and he hired his brother named Robert Kennedy. I think there was a governor named Mario Cuomo and there was a son that ran his campaign and also ran the non-profit. I think he's the governor now," Councilman Seabrook said. 

Councilman Seabrook defended the non-profits as legitimate organizations. He said that rules didn't prohibit council members from directing money to non-profits staffed by family members during the period covered by the case--2002 to 2009.

"There is no ruling that says that family members cannnot work or participate in any other non-profits," Councilman Seabrook said. "The rules have changed, but therefore during the particular period that we;re talking about, that was certainly not prohibited."

According to the government's indictment, Councilman Seabrook's relatives and girlfriend worked at the non-profits. One of the employees was Councilman Seabrook's sister, Priscilla Jenkins, who lived in Georgia while she had the job.

"Priscilla Jenkins was not doing work in Georgia, she was doing work in New York City, and people do have means of travel, and it's all documented and no one has made accusations that it was a no show," Councilman Seabrook said. "You all act as if these were the only people that were employed in these programs, there were a number of other people that was employed within these programs."

Councilman Seabrook also disputed the idea that his family members and girlfriend were not qualified to work at the non-profits. He pointed out that salaries for the jobs in question clocked in at under $40,000.

"Don't talk about qualifications, how much qualified would you want someone to be for the small amount of money that they're paid?" the councilman asked.

Councilman Seabrook's legal troubles aren't over yet. He will have to face the charges again at a new trial. Edward Wilford, Councilman Seabrook's attorney, joined him on the NY1 broadcast.  After the mistrial, Mr. Wilford is optimistic about round two.

"When you look at the so-called mountain of evidence, the salacious headlines that were attributed to this case and the dedicated effort of the federal government to garner a conviction, in a district where they have a 95% conviction rate," Mr. Wilford said. "The fact that they weren't able to convince jurors that their positions were provable beyond reasonable doubt does make us feel good."

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