Jona Rechnitz, a donor to Mayor Bill de Blasio who is at the center of a sweeping corruption probe, is the cooperating witness mentioned in a federal bribery case against corrections union chief Norman Seabrook, sources said.
The real estate investor has pleaded guilty to conspiracy, according to a federal complaint against Seabrook.
Rechnitz is “providing information to the government in the hopes of obtaining leniency when he is sentenced,” according to the complaint.
The complaint, which does not name Rechnitz, refers to him as Cooperating Witness 1, or CW-1. It says the information he has given has been “reliable and corroborated by independent evidence.”
Alan Levine, Rechnitz’s lawyer, declined to comment about the case Wednesday morning.
De Blasio, when asked about Rechnitz, said: “I wish I never met the guy. If we had any inkling that this was the kind of human being he was, we never would have gone near him.”
Hizzoner returned a $4,959 contribution from Rechnitz and another contribution from his wife in the same amount.
Rechnitz, who met Seabrook through an NYPD cop in late 2013, arranged for international trips, cash payments and other gifts for the union head.
Seabrook traveled with Rechnitz, the cop and others to Las Vegas, Israel, the Dominican Republic and other places in 2013 and 2014, according to the complaint.
Rechnitz and Jeremy Reichberg, a prominent member of the Orthodox Jewish community in Borough Park, Brooklyn, have been at the center of an NYPD corruption scandal and mayoral fundraising activities.
