N.Y. Senate Majority Leader Indicted for Stealing

[bemildred]

Source: Bloomberg

Dec. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Pedro Espada Jr., the New York Senate majority leader, and his son were indicted on charges of embezzling more than $500,000 from nonprofit health-care clinics in the Bronx section of New York City.

From 2005 through 2009, Espada, 57, and his son, Pedro Gautier Espada, 37, abused their positions at Soundview Healthcare Center in the Bronx, which gets more than $1 million a year in federal funding, according to U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch in Brooklyn, where the case is filed.

“The indictment alleges that funds that could and should have been applied to purchase medical equipment and enhance health-care services for an historically under-served population were diverted by the defendants for their personal use,” Lynch said today in a statement.

Attorney General Andrew Cuomo in April accused Espada in a civil lawsuit of taking $14 million over five years from his Bronx health clinics. In September, Espada was defeated in the Democratic primary for his Bronx seat. He and his son are scheduled to make their initial court appearances tomorrow.

Read more: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-12-14/n-y-senate-majority-leader-indicted-for-stealing.html

[LiberalFighter]

1. Good riddance.

There needs to more transparency and financial disclosures.

[bluestateguy]

2. New York must have the most corrupt legislature in the U.S.

And that is saying something.

[ejpoeta]

4. after that fiasco shutting down acting like babies!! two dems getting bought off

to switch sides and then getting bought off to switch back again. that should be a damned crime! friggin bribery! they all need to get thrown out on their ear in ny and start over. i am sure there a few decent ones there, but it sure seems like a rotten lot.

[customerserviceguy]

5. Well, New Jersey is probably close

The corruption on this coast is mind boggling.

[ejpoeta]

3. wasn't he one of the two 'dems' who switched sides and helped start that whole

bs fiasco? GOOD! fuckers!

[savannah43]

7. Yes he was.

He's a classless thief without any finesse. Good riddance.

[aquart]

6. I can't wait for the conviction.

[Ian David]

8. Republicans only switch to Democrat right before a scandal is about to engulf them. n/t