Embattled Bronx politico Pedro Espada Jr. looted a whopping $14 million over the past five years from a non-profit that he runs — including giving himself a $9 million severance package, paying for family vacations to Puerto Rico and hefty bills at sushi restaurants, Attorney General Andrew Cuomo’s office revealed today.
In a lawsuit filed in Manhattan Supreme Court, Cuomo claims Espada diverted charitable assets connected to the Bronx-based Soundview HealthCare Network and used the money for himself, his family and his political operation.
Cuomo said Soundview, which relies heavily on Medicaid dollars with the aim of providing healthcare to poor Bronx residents, was Espada’s personal and political piggy bank.
“Taxpayer money was given to this not-for-profit to provide healthcare services to underprivileged patients, but our investigation has found the funds flowed into the pockets of Senator Espada and his supporters,” he said.
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Over the past five years, Espada, who currently serves as the State Senate’s Majority Leader, allegedly siphoned more than $14 million out of Soundview — including giving himself a severance package worth an estimated $9 million which was put into a contract signed in 2005.
Last year, The Post reported that Espada used a luxury car paid for with his charity’s money and allowed the use of other cars by top employees, including his daughter-in-law and a woman convicted of committing fraud for one of his campaigns.
At Soundview headquarters on White Plains Road, Espada, who collects nearly $460,000 a year in salary and benefits as the charity’s CEO, was seen by a Post reporter last August getting into a 2008 Chrysler 300C sedan driven by someone who picked him up. The car is registered to the charity.
Living in the lap of luxury on the taxpayer’s dime was only part of it. The Soundview Board — packed with Espada’s family, friends, and Senate employees — rubber stamped many of the transactions outlined in Cuomo’s suit.
As a result, Cuomo is seeking to permanently remove Espada and current Chief Financial Officer Kenneth Brennan as officers of the charity, along with the organization’s entire board of directors.
“Siphoning money from a charity would be egregious under any circumstances, but the fact that this was orchestrated by the State Senate Majority Leader makes it especially reprehensible,” Cuomo said. “In New York, no one is above the law, and this suit should finally make that clear to Senator Espada.”
Cuomo’s probe also found that:
— Soundview paid $80,000 in restaurant bills for 650 separate meals for Espada or his supporters, including more than 200 meals totaling more than $20,000 from two sushi restaurants in Mamaroneck.
— Soundview paid for trips for Espada, his wife and his family to Las Vegas, Miami, and Puerto Rico as purported business trips.
— Soundview has provided Espada with what is “essentially an unlimited line of credit” on a corporate American Express card. From 2006 through last year, Espada charged more than $450,000 in items he later identified as “personal.”
— Espada created a company that offered janitorial services, put his son, Pedro Gautier Espada, in charge of it, and then Gautier rigged the bids to make sure it won the Soundview contract, worth almost $400,000 annually. Two years ago, Pedro Gautier earned more than $150,000 from the for-profit company and from Soundview.
— Soundview provided Espada, who lives in Westchester County, with a housing allowance of $2,500 per month to pay for a Bronx apartment that Espada claimed as his legal residence for purposes of his 2008 campaign.
Cuomo’s office also said that Soundview’s board was stacked with Espada cronies, including his uncle, Victor Feliciano; his sister’s boyfriend Victor Sierra; and his niece Jacqueline Collazo.
Espada played a notorious role in last summer’s Senate coup attempt and wound up becoming majority leader after he switched from supporting the Democrats to Republicans and back to Democrats again.
Over the past year, Espada has called Cuomo’s action a “witch hunt driven by his political ambitions.”