New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo today filed suit against state Senate Majority Leader Pedro Espada (D), charging Espada with using his health care non-profit to funnel money into his campaign, to his family and to pay for personal expenses.
Cuomo, a Democrat and the front-runner in the gubernatorial race, alleges that Espada and his family stole $14 million over five years.
According to the lawsuit, Espada used the non-profit he founded, known as Soundview, to pay for $80,000 in restaurant bills and $450,000 worth of credit card charges. The company also gave him a contract for a $9 million severance package and $75,000 in credit for unused leave time, of which he had 14 weeks every year. He also founded another company which won Soundview contracts worth $400,000, earning his son $150,000, the suit alleges.
Espada also allegedly used Soundview to pay hundreds of thousands in campaign expenses, including rent on a home he used to establish official residence.
The suit seeks restitution and to remove Espada from the board of directors at Soundview. It also alleges that he packed the board with his family and with employees of the Senate, and seeks to remove them from the board as well.
Espada’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Late update: Espada’s office has released a statement claiming the lawsuit is political payback for last summer’s Albany coup when Espada and former Sen. Hiram Monserrate switched temporarily to the Republican party, plunging the legislature into chaos. (Monserrate was expelled from the Senate in February over a misdemeanor conviction for assaulting his girlfriend.)
“It is clear to many that the motivation behind all of this is simple political payback for what the establishment likes to call the Senate coup, but what I call the start of real reform in the New York State Senate,” Espada said.
“These actions are politics as usual, a steamroller approach to using the power of one’s office, an office I remind you whose purpose is to protect the people, not to make unfounded assertions and accusations as a means to achieve political power. We have seen this movie from that office before, and we all know how it ends,” he said.