New York — Pedro Espada Jr., the outgoing State Senate majority leader who was defeated in the September Democratic primary as scandal swirled around him, was indicted along with his son on Tuesday on charges that they embezzled more than $500,000 from the nonprofit health care network they operated in the Bronx.
Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn announced that a grand jury had handed up a six-count indictment [pdf – see also below] naming Mr. Espada, 57, a Democrat from the Bronx, and a son, Pedro Gautier Espada, 37.
Both men were charged with five counts of embezzling money from the nonprofit, the Soundview HealthCare Network, which receives more than $1 million a year from the United States Department of Health and Human Services and millions more in Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements. They were also charged with a single count of conspiring to steal government funds.
The indictment details what prosecutors said were a series of schemes in which Mr. Espada and his son abused their position at Soundview between 2005 and 2009 to divert the nonprofit’s money for their own benefit and the use of family members and friends.
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