Metro

‘Bagel’ pol to get loxed up: Mere 5 yrs. for Seabrook in $cam

Bagel-loving, crooked ex-Bronx Councilman Larry Seabrook got lightly toasted yesterday by a judge who cut him a break for a brazen fraud scheme involving more than $1 million in taxpayer money.

Manhattan federal Judge Deborah Batts ordered the Bronx Democrat to serve five years in the slammer, rejecting recommendations from the feds that Seabrook get locked up for at least seven-plus years.

Batts blasted Seabrook — who got booted from the City Council after his conviction last year — for “his sense of entitlement, arrogance, nepotism and greed” in funneling public funds to shady nonprofits that employed his then-mistress, family members and friends.

“Instead of holding himself to a higher fiduciary standard as a councilman, the defendant held himself above the law,” the judge noted acidly.

But while citing only “minimal reason” for leniency, Batts said Seabrook still deserved “some consideration” for his history of public service, which also includes stints in the state Assembly and Senate.

She also declined to slap Seabrook with a fine, and ordered restitution of just $619,000-plus, of which about $418,000 is to be forfeited in the form of any cash, property or possessions he owns.

Prosecutors had sought to hold Seabrook accountable for more than $1.1 million, which they said represented a “conservative analysis” of how much he had scammed.

A jury found Seabrook guilty on nine counts of conspiracy and fraud for three separate schemes to loot council slush funds and programs to boost minority employment and diversity in the city Fire Department.

But he beat the rap for a fourth alleged scam that included the infamous allegation that he doctored a receipt to get reimbursed $177 from his political club for a bagel sandwich and Diet Snapple.

Seabrook, 61, delivered a somewhat rambling statement in which he said “I gave my all” to the people of The Bronx, and insisted he didn’t take part in the forgeries and thefts committed by employees of the nonprofits who got immunity to testify against him.

“I know that the level of criminality that they might have done certainly was not a part of me, but I accept the jury’s charge of what they have actually charged me with,” he said.

Seabrook also vowed to “continue to fight and do what has to be done for the service of people because that’s all I know in terms of giving service.”

Defense lawyer Anthony Ricco had urged a no-jail sentence, saying the feds had “belittled” Seabrook’s “extraordinary commitment to his community.”Ricco said Seabrook wasn’t motivated by “evil and malicious intent and purpose,” but conceded that the disgraced politician exercised “poor judgment,” especially in the hiring of then-mistress Gloria Jones-Grant to head the nonprofits.

“Take her out of the picture, and I don’t think we’re standing here today,” he said.

Ricco also cited a “touching” and “moving” letter from Seabrook’s long-suffering wife, Maria Diaz, in which she begged to keep her hubby out of prison so their 14-year-old son, Lawrence, won’t go astray.

Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bharara called Seabrook “a flagrant and serial abuser of City Council discretionary funds” who “sacrificed the public trust on the altar of greed.”

“Today’s sentence finally vindicates the interests of the constituents whose trust he so casually violated by his fraud,” Bharara said.

City Department of Investigation Commissioner Rose Gill Hearn said Seabrook’s sentence “punctuates a powerful message that abusing government power to steal has serious consequences.”

Seabrook has until March 8 to report to prison.

He declined to comment after leaving the courthouse, but defense lawyer Ed Wilford said Seabrook would appeal his conviction.