Sometimes, you have to just give in (to charges of embezzlement).More »

The Wall Street Journal's Greater New York section lives up to its name today with a revealing story by reporter Jacob Gershman about how state officials blithely ignored warnings five years ago that Pedro Espada's health care empire was running wild.

The warning was raised in a January 2005 memo by the state health department's former number two top attorney, Paul Stavis. The memo, Gershman reports, urged the agency to force Espada to give up control of his network of health care clinics based in Soundview in the Bronx. The move, urged Stavis in the memo, was "fundamental to insuring more legitimacy at Soundview."

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The indictment of state senator Pedro Espada Jr. and his son yesterday on federal embezzlement and conspiracy charges makes a pretty good guide for how to pick a nonprofit pocket:

-For starters there's creative Amex card use: Espada's own lousy credit rating made him ineligible for the Don't-Leave-Home-Without-It club. No problem: Have your publicly funded health clinic's financial officer agree to serve as personal guarantor.

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The re-election campaign of Pedro Espada Jr. -- the New York state senator who made Albany go haywire when he betrayed the Democrats to go Republican only to betray Republicans to be lured back as an exponentially more powerful Democrat -- was just profiled by Nick Rizzo for Capital New York. In it, there's a pretty unbelievable anecdote about one of Espada's canvassing teams that makes the entire thing worthwhile. Ask yourself if this sounds legal, or at the very least, even remotely ethical:

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Ex-boxer Pedro Espada Jr. jabbed back yesterday at the push by state Democratic party officials to strip the much-investigated state senator of his party affiliation, and he aimed his toughest punches at state Democrat Number One, Andrew Cuomo.

"Every aspect of this is Cuomo," the Bronx battler told the News' Kenneth Lovett. "The fact that he has other stooges speaking for him, he's pulling the strings on this."

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Emmy Suzuki Harris, VP of the Manhattan Dems.

A special delivery arrived on state Senate Majority Leader Pedro Espada's Mamaroneck doorstep this Saturday, compliments of a pair of activists in bright orange prison jumpers flanked by angry Democrats dressed in "Don't Vote for Pedro" shirts. They brought sushi.

It seemed the perfect gift for the embattled Bronx senator, who we now know has a penchant for the stuff, to mark the anniversary of the June 8 coup, when he and now-convicted former State Senator Hiram Monserrate paralyzed business in Albany for weeks in an act of parliamentary mutiny.

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In many ways the lawsuit filed yesterday by Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's team against state senate rogue Pedro Espada is a much tougher hit than last week's allegations. Lawsuit No. 1 detailed Espada's greedy $14 million take-down from the chain of health care clinics he runs in the Bronx, complete with free rent, travel, massive amounts of sushi, and a Mercedes. Still, it left just enough room for Espada and his diehard allies to argue that he was just another hard-charging nonprofit executive who delivered good services for the money.

There's absolutely no such wiggle room in the new lawsuit. It reveals that Espada abused unemployed New Yorkers by luring them into a phony job training program to clean his clinics, one that would lead to real jobs down the road. But the senator's idea of job training was a mop, a bucket, and a buck-seventy an hour. There was no classroom, no instruction, and no training, says Cuomo.

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​State Senate Majority Leader Pedro Espada Jr. is in a fair amount of shit. It seems New York attorney general Andrew Cuomo has it out for him, or at least has it out for politicians who brazenly break the law and shadily shuffle around big dollar amounts like they're the villain in a comic book. Because that's Espada's style, according to a new lawsuit that alleges millions of dollars in misappropriated funds and a host of other offenses. Worst of all, he doesn't tip well.

Some diligent reporting (and Facebook stalking) by Runnin' Scared's down and dirty ally Hunter Walker runs down the case and Espada's defense, which unfortunately starts on social network.

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