New York Post
by Erik Kriss
October 26, 2012

ALBANY --­ Add poster boy to disgraced ex-state Senate Majority Leader Pedro Espada Jr.’s résumé.

A new bill, dubbed “Espada’s Law,” would make it a crime for any pol to repeatedly fail to file required campaign-contribution and expense reports, as was the case with Espada.

The Bronx Democrat ­ who’s headed to the pokey for up to seven years after pleading guilty to tax-fraud charges in connection with looting the nonprofit Soundview Healthcare Network he founded ­ had nearly $400,000 in campaign accounts at last count.

Albany Times Union
Missed filing deadlines, as noted in ex-senator's case, may not matter
by Rick Karlin
October 20, 2012

Albany -- Disgraced former Sen. Pedro Espada Jr. is leaving a lot of financial damage in his wake.

Not only did the Bronx lawmaker plead guilty to tax evasion in connection with the theft of more than $400,000 from the health care center he created back in 1978, Espada also owes more than $30,000 in fines for campaign finance law violations, said John Conklin, a spokesman for the state Board of Elections.

Few expect Espada or his campaign officials to make good on the back fines. Critics say it's just one example of how the state fails to adequately police those who abuse campaign finance laws.

Actually, Espada himself isn't on the hook for the penalties, since the campaign treasurers are ultimately responsible.

New York Daily News
His thievery was abetted by Democrats and Republicans alike
Opinion
October 14, 2012

New York’s most slippery politician, the brazen Pedro Espada, has finally admitted what the world figured out years ago: He’s a shameless crook.

Back in May ­ after a trial that featured Espada’s associates showing up in red outfits to ward off “evil spirits” ­ the former state Senate majority leader was convicted of looting Medicaid money from his Soundview health clinics.

But the jury deadlocked on several more counts against him as well as on all charges against his son, Pedro Gauthier Espada, leaving a lot of loose ends for prosecutors.

Faces up to 10 years in jail and $1.2 million in fines after guilty plea
New York Daily News
by Larry McShane
October 13, 2012

Disgraced politician Pedro Espada swapped his pinstriped suit for a jogging suit Saturday ­ one day after a guilty plea that will land him in a prison jumpsuit. An emotionless Espada, 58, was accompanied by his wife, Connie, and their daughter before climbing into a car outside his Mamaroneck home.

The former state senator pleaded guilty Friday to filing a false tax return that ignored $400,000 in stolen cash from his Soundview Health Network. His son Pedro Gautier Espada, 38, pleaded guilty to lesser charges in the ripoff of the Bronx business ­ but he was nowhere in sight when the family headed out Saturday.

Prosecutors charged Espada spent the looted funds on expensive vacations, family parties, lavish meals and home improvements. Espada faces up to 10 years in prison on the top count, along with $1.2 million in fines and penalties.

New York Daily News
by Ken Lotvett
October 12, 2012

As former Sen. Pedro Espada prepares to plead guilty today to the final federal charges stemming from his oversight of Soundview medical center, his former Albany colleagues on both side of the aisle showed little sympathy.

Espada still has at least one other ongoing probe. Gov. Cuomo as attorney general launched a civil probe into Espada as part of a crackdown into public corruption, an investigation still being pursued by current AG Eric Schneiderman.

Cuomo's office had no comment on the expected guilty plea, but his former chief of staff, Steven Cohen, said it was proof that aggressive enforcement works.

New York Post
by Mitchel Maddux and Dan Mangan
October 12, 2012

Disgraced ex-state Sen. Pedro Espada Jr. and his son are scheduled to plead guilty today in Brooklyn federal court after reaching a deal with prosecutors over charges they looted more than $500,000 from the Bronx health-care nonprofit they founded, sources said.

The plea deal would resolve Espada’s and Pedro Gautier Espada’s pending retrial in Brooklyn federal court for which they stand accused of swindling the Soundview Healthcare Network to fund a lavish lifestyle, as well as a Manhattan federal court case in which they are accused of failing to pay taxes on that money, sources said.

Terms of the plea deal were not disclosed yesterday but could include a reduction in the number of charges and an agreement on what prison sentence federal guidelines would call for.

New York Times
by Mosi Secret
October 12, 2012

For years, Pedro Espada Jr., the former Democratic state senator, railed viciously against anyone who dared to question him. He took a fighter’s relish in attacking both the political foes who failed to stem his rise and the prosecutors who accused him of stealing from the nonprofit health care center he founded and ran in the Bronx.

These critics, he said, were linked in a “vast conspiracy,” and he accused them of pursuing political vendettas and even practicing black magic in an effort to take him down. Through it all he showed an uncanny ability to survive to the next fight. But on Friday Mr. Espada showed a different face, that of a man on the verge of being sent to prison, whose only hope now was for leniency from the judge who will sentence him, Frederic Block.

“Yes, Your Honor, I accept responsibility,” he told the judge in Federal District Court in Brooklyn.

New York Times
by Colin Moynihan
October 4, 2012

A federal judge told Pedro Espada Jr. and his estranged lawyer on Thursday that they must continue to work together even though both men had asked him to dissolve the relationship.

Mr. Espada, a former Democratic state senator, was convicted in May of stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from the Soundview Healthcare Network, an organization in the Bronx that he founded and led. He is still facing a tax evasion trial in Federal District Court in Manhattan.

His lawyer in the tax case, Daniel A. Hochheiser, had asked Judge William H. Pauley III to allow him to withdraw from the case, saying Mr. Espada had not paid him the agreed-upon amounts. Mr. Espada countered in court on Wednesday that Mr. Hochheiser had not represented him correctly.

New York Times
by Colin Moynihan
October 3, 2012

A lawyer for Pedro Espada Jr., the former New York State senator convicted in May of stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from a nonprofit group he founded, told a judge in Federal District Court in Manhattan on Wednesday that he could not continue to represent him in a pending tax evasion case.

The lawyer, Daniel A. Hochheiser, who was preparing to represent Mr. Espada in a trial scheduled to start in November, asked to withdraw from the case because of an argument over payment.

“The fee dispute ripened on Sept. 20,” Mr. Hochheiser told Judge William H. Pauley III. “Unfortunately, we were unable to resolve it.”

New York Daily News
The convicted ex-lawmaker broke with his previous attorney and told a judge in July, before his current attorney signed on, that he couldn't afford counsel
by Robert Gearty
September 27, 2012

Crooked former Bronx state Sen. Pedro Espada Jr. has a new legal problem ­ the lawyer who signed on to defend him in a new federal trial wants off the case.

Daniel Hochheiser offered no reason for why he served notice Thursday to withdraw as Espada’s counsel with a fraud trial upcoming in Manhattan Federal Court.

“I’m not going to discuss it,” Hochheiser, who submitted a motion but has yet to explain it to the judge, told the Daily News.

In May, a federal jury in Brooklyn found Espada guilty of stealing more than $400,000 from the Soundview Healthcare Network he founded to pay for dinners and other personal expenses.