Posted on 04/20/2010 9:43:37 AM PDT by freespirited
New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is accusing state Senate Majority Leader Pedro Espada Jr. of siphoning $14 million from the senator's government-funded Bronx clinic.
Cuomo announced a lawsuit Tuesday against nearly 20 current and former officials of an Espada company known locally as Soundview.
The attorney general says Espada diverted charitable assets to himself, relatives and friends and for his political operation.
There was no immediate comment from Espada, who had called Cuomo's investigation a "witch hunt" to boost the attorney general's political career. They are both Democrats.
Espada is a freshman senator who was instrumental in a coup that gridlocked the chamber last summer.
(Excerpt) Read more at google.com ...
The Attorney General’s office has repeatedly been a stepping stone to the Governor’s mansion in New York. All you have to do is prosecute some Wall Street fat cat or corrupt politicians, so you can show the voters that you’re a Fighter Against Corrupt Oppressors.
(I must copywrite that acronym: FACO, pronounced Fake-Oh.)
It doesn’t matter if there are any real grounds for the lawsuit, because by the time it comes to trial, you’re sitting in the Gov’s mansion, and your successor has to deal with it.
I have to admit to a grudging admiration for a freshman senator who must be both savvy and cutthroat in order to become majority leader as a freshman.
Beyond that it’s New York’s problem and I could care less about the results.
The suit alleges that the nonprofit’s board approved a $9 million severance package for Mr. Espada that, if triggered, would bankrupt the nonprofit, which does business as Soundview.
Soundview also paid roughly $80,000 in restaurant bills for Mr. Espada and his supporters; purported trips for the senator, his wife, and family to destinations like Las Vegas, Miami and Puerto Rico; and more than $100,000 worth of campaign expenses connected to his 2008 Senate campaign.
The NYP was all over this months ago. He also created a building maintenance firm run by his wife (IIRC) or another family member to provide janitorial services, no bids of course.
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