Efrain Gonzalez
Efrain Gonzalez Jr. (born 1948) is a former New York senator and a convicted felon.
Gonzalez was born in Coamo, Puerto Rico, and his family moved to the United States shortly thereafter.
Prior to his election to the State Senate, Gonzalez worked as the union representative for the Transport Workers Union, and subsequently, the union representative for Local 820 of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters from 1969 until 1979, which was during his employment at Brinks Armored Car Service.
Gonzalez was married on July 20, 1969 and has four children with his wife. He and his first wife divorced in March 1987.
Gonzalez was elected to the New York State Senate in 1989, in a special election to replace Israel Ruiz Jr., who had been expelled upon conviction of fraud charges. He was the Chairman of the Minority Conference in the Senate, as well as Chairman Emeritus of the National Hispanic Caucus of State Legislators, and Chairman of the New York State Puerto Rican/Hispanic Task Force. He also was President of the National Hispanic Policy Institute and on the Executive Committee of the Parliamentary Confederation of the Americas.
On August 25, 2006, Gonzalez was indicted on federal mail fraud charges. He was accused of taking $37,412 from November 2000 to May 2006 from the West Bronx Neighborhood Association, a nonprofit organization he founded, and using it for personal expenses, including New York Yankees tickets and membership fees at a vacation club in the Dominican Republic. He surrendered to federal authorities when his indictment was unsealed, and released on $25,000 bail following his arraignment the same day.
Despite being under indictment, González was re-elected in a landslide to his State Senate seat on Election Day in November 2006.
A superseding indictment followed on December 12, 2006, accusing Gonzalez and others of mail fraud and theft of federal funds in a conspiracy to steal $423,000 through a complicated scheme that involved funneling the money through the West Bronx Neighborhood Association and the United Latin American Foundation, another not-for-profit group. As in the first set of charges, he was also accused of using state money and about $40,000 in federal grants for membership fees in a vacation club, rent and renovations for homes used by his wife and mother-in-law, and items like Yankees tickets, jewelry and college tuition for his daughter, and designing and printing labels for cigars produced by a company he owned.
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