Crooked ex-pol Pedro Espada Jr. scraped up enough dough to hire a new lawyer yesterday — even as The Post learned that he still has not accounted for nearly $400,000 in campaign cash.
The disgraced Bronx Democrat (pictured), who’s awaiting sentencing for looting the health-care nonprofit he founded, went to Manhattan federal court with his new mouthpiece after refusing to sign a financial affidavit needed to qualify for free representation on related tax charges.
“You have to file it if you say you’re indigent. He’s not indigent,” said his new lawyer, Daniel Hochheiser, outside court.
Records show three Espada campaign committees had $372,320.94 in the bank the last time they filed reports with the state Board of Elections.
One hasn’t filed since 2002, and his latest committee, New Yorkers for Espada, had $290,556.24 on hand when it last filed, shortly before voters booted him from office in the 2010 Democratic primary.
“There’s no way of knowing what happened to this money,” said Bill Mahoney, of the New York Public Interest Research Group.
A spokesman said the state Board of Elections sued Espada “multiple times for failure to file committee reports,” noting the former state senator at one point “owed us north of 40 filings.”
“He has paid some of his fines and made some filings,” spokesman John Conklin added.
Hochheiser, meanwhile, said he was just retained yesterday and didn’t know anything about his client’s campaign finances.