New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo filed a lawsuit Wednesday against Sen. Majority Leader Pedro Espada, Jr. and his son, Pedro Espada, claiming they both violated state labor laws and shortchanged workers through a sham job training program.

The suit alleges the senator and his son created a for-profit management company that siphoned money from nonprofit health centers in the Soundview section of the Bronx.

Cuomo alleges both Espada and Espada, Jr., mislabeled company workers as trainees, who received little training and were paid wage far below what New York State law requires. The trainees typically worked for a two-week period with little training or direction and performed tasks such as cleaning bathrooms, mopping floors and sweeping — the same tasks a full time janitor typically performed.

The employees made less than $70 per week, which equals under $1.70 an hours. Paychecks were cleared by either Sen. Espada or his son.

“This was a sham job training program pure and simple with workers receiving no training and getting virtually no jobs,” said Attorney General Cuomo. “Espada ripped off his own community in order to maximize the amount of money he could siphon out of the Soundview clinic, according to our Complaint. The Espada business model at Soundview appears to have been based on lies and deceit, abusing hardworking people for profit and cheating the state out of tax dollars.”

In addition, Cuomo was lured into the program with false promises of potential jobs and job training, however, most of they were ultimately replaced by other trainees, who also made below the minimum wage.

Cuomo announced Wednesday that at least 100 workers had been victimized since the program launched in 2005.

Espada is currently embroiled in another lawsuit, in which Cuomo claims he illegally swiped $14 million from his government-funded Soundview clinic.

(Source: WPIX 11)