Metro

Pedro stole ‘expense’ funds: feds

The feds yesterday accused Pedro Espada of trying to pass off personal expenses he paid for with embezzled funds as tax-deductible business expenditures.

In a letter to the judge handling the corruption case against the former state Senate majority leader, Brooklyn federal prosecutors said Espada used money stolen from his taxpayer-financed Soundview Healthcare clinics to rent a vacation villa in Puerto Rico, later classifying the “multi-thousand dollar expense” as “legal fees” on a corporate tax return.

After Espada threw a birthday party for a family member and used Soundview money “to pay a woman to videotape the party,” he described the payment as a business fee to a “consultant service,” the prosecutors said.

Other “intentionally” mislabeled uses of corporate funds included thousands of dollars spent on campaign mailings . . . thousands of dollars for spa treatments for Espada, his wife and daughters-in-law, and thousands spent on improvements to his home in Mamaroneck, prosecutors wrote.