Efrain Gonzalez Jr. served as Chair of the Minority Conference within the New York State Senate, Chairman Emeritus of the National Hispanic Caucus of State Legislators and Chair of the New York State Puerto Rican/Hispanic Task Force. He was likewise President of the National Hispanic Policy Institute and sat on the Executive Committee of the Parliamentary Confederation of the Americas, (COPA).
In May of 2010, Gonzalez was sentenced to 84 months (7 years) in federal prison on two counts of conspiracy and two counts of wire fraud in connection with accusations that he had defrauded a non-profit with which he was involved: the West Bronx Neighborhood Association Inc. But as Brian Madden points out in this riveting narrative: "The charities that were supposedly ripped off had received many tens of millions of dollars in funding and contributions ... thanks to Efrain's work."
Here we have vivid "inside" portrayals of political maneuverings at the state government level, the Hispanic community of Gonzalez's Bronx, and the tangled process of dealing with over-zealous federal prosecutors who routinely use ambiguous laws as nets with which to snare high-profile prey.
Peopled by such personalities as the Rev. Al Sharpton and former New York Senator Al D'Amato, Efrain's story is impossible to set aside and important to know.