JSR Capital’s Jona Rechnitz, one of two businessmen at the center of a federal investigation, reportedly helped steer a $10 million investment from the city’s correction officers’ union to a hedge fund.
Rechnitz and Jeremy Reichberg at the center of an investigation into Mayor Bill de Blasio’s fundraising and a corruption probe into the New York City Police Department. More than 20 police officers have been questioned — and six disciplined — for alleging accepting gifts and trips from the duo in exchange for favors.
Rechnitz referred Norman Seabrook, the president of the Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association, to Platinum Partners, sources told the Wall Street Journal.
A substantial amount of the union’s money went toward the investment, and at the time, Rechnitz reportedly had links to the hedge fund, the Journal reported. Rechnitz and the founder of a Platinum subsidiary run in the same Jewish philanthropic circles, sources told the Journal.
Prosecutors investigated the investment last year as well as Seabrook’s financials and travel records.
The newspaper reported that Platinum’s investments include financing deals tied to litigation, loans backed by life insurance policies and energy markets.
Rechnitz, who founded JSR Capital, owns a handful of properties, focusing on residential buildings with retail components and individual condominium units, according to an analysis by The Real Deal.
An Africa Israel alumnus, Rechnitz donated $50,000 to de Blasio’s political nonprofit Campaign for One New York, and he and his wife contributed $9,900 to the mayor’s 2013 campaign. [WSJ] — Dusica Sue Malesevic