Kebreau for State Senate

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Reply to Msg 1689

If you checked your facts Kebreau is on the conservative line, and is honest, and can and will do more for the Bronx than Senator Gonzalez who has been stealing from the Bronx for 15 years tp pay for Yankee tickets, his childcare, lavish dinners, his kids tuition and lawyers to battle paying for his son healthcare.

See the NY Post, NY Sun, Bronx Times etc
A crook is a crook
Here are the facts from the NY Times
New York Times
August 26, 2006
State Senator Gonzalez Is Accused of Using Nonprofit's Funds
By AL BAKER and TIMOTHY WILLIAMS

Efraín González Jr., one of the longest-serving Hispanic members of the State Senate, was indicted yesterday on federal charges of fraud, accused of using $37,000 from a nonprofit organization for personal expenses, including Yankees tickets and membership fees at a vacation club in the Dominican Republic.

Senator González, 58, who represents portions of the Bronx, surrendered to federal authorities yesterday morning and was released several hours later after posting $25,000 bail.

At a brief afternoon appearance in Federal District Court in Manhattan, Mr. González did not enter a plea. But one of his lawyers, Kim Richman, said afterward that he intended to plead not guilty.

Mr. González, a Democrat first elected in 1989, is the latest in a series of state lawmakers from New York City to be indicted in recent years, including Assemblywoman Gloria Davis of the Bronx, who resigned after pleading guilty in 2003 to bribery, and Senator Guy J. Velella of the Bronx, who resigned and pleaded guilty in 2004 to taking bribes.

In July,

In 2004, Mr. González was re-elected to the Senate despite allegations that had surfaced about improprieties involving the West Bronx Neighborhood Association Inc., a nonprofit he founded that is on the Grand Concourse in the same building as his Bronx Senate office.

The indictment said that from about November 2000 through this May, Mr. González sought to defraud the nonprofit by taking its funds for his own use. As part of the scheme, the indictment said, the senator used the United States postal system to mail checks from the nonprofit to credit card companies and to private vendors.

Mr. González spent $37,412 meant for the nonprofit on himself, according to the indictment.

It says the money paid for rent on homes in Monroe, N.Y., and in the Dominican Republic; tickets to Yankees games; membership dues for a Dominican Republic vacation club; clothing; and college tuition.

"Misuse of not-for-profit funds by anyone -- public servant or not -- is a serious breach of trust," Michael J. Garcia, the United States attorney in Manhattan, said in a statement yesterday.

"Those with authority over such funds have a special responsibility to use them only for their intended purposes."

If convicted, Mr. González could be sentenced to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

He is up for re-election this fall but has no opponent in next month's Democratic primary.

In the November general election, he is being challenged by a little-known Conservative Party candidate, Ernest Kebreau.

There is no Republican candidate.

In the 2004 election, Mr. González received about 46,000 votes in his heavily Democratic district, compared with about 5,000 for a candidate who ran on the Republican and Conservative lines.

An investigation by the City Department of Investigation continues, said Emily Gest, a spokeswoman for the agency.

Its inquiry started during the course of an unrelated investigation in which the agency discovered that public funds were being transferred to the nonprofit organization, the department said in a statement.

City investigators examined records, including canceled checks, bills and invoices from the West Bronx Neighborhood Association, and determined that some of the organization's money was being used to pay Mr. González's personal expenses, according to the statement.

Federal investigators also questioned several people associated with the West Bronx Neighborhood Association or with the senator.

While it was Mr. González who seemed to pique their interest, many people wondered whether any indictments might lead to others and whether a substantial amount of public money had disappeared.

August 26, 2006
State Senator Gonzalez Is Accused of Using Nonprofit's Funds

Jd, October 28 2006, 11:35 AM

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