At his arraignment in a lower Manhattan federal courthouse on Friday, Dec. 15, State Senator Efrain Gonzalez, who has represented the northwest Bronx in Albany for the past 16 years, looked calm and collected, like he had been there before.

It’s probably because the embattled Democratic lawmaker actually had just been there, four months prior, to face mail fraud charges claiming he had swindled $37,412 from a non-profit called the West Bronx Neighborhood Association (WBNA).

Following that appearance, Gonzalez’s longtime attorney, Murray Richman, said he expected there to be superceding, or further, charges piled on top of the original mail fraud charge.

On Dec. 13, Richman’s words proved prescient as the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York heaped on an additional nine counts of embezzlement, fraud, conspiracy and money laundering.

The 40-page indictment released by the U.S. Attorney’s Office says Gonzalez funneled $423,000 worth of state funds through two New York City non-profits in order to ultimately steal the money and use it for his own personal expenses, including rent and rehabilitation for homes in upstate New York and the Dominican Republic; designs for his fledgling cigar company; Yankees tickets; jewelry and clothing; and college tuition for his daughter.

If convicted on all the charges, Gonzalez could be sentenced to a total of 130 years in prison.

In a phone interview, Richman called the charges, “unequivocal bulls–t,” saying he couldn’t understand why they waited four months to file the additional charges.

Despite the previous indictment, Gonzalez easily trounced Conservative Party Candidate Ernest Kebreau in the November general election, garnering 87 percent of the vote.

At this most recent arraignment, Gonzalez was not alone. He was joined by co-defendants Lucia “Lucy” Sanchez, Neil Berger and Miguel Castanos, all of whom were represented by different lawyers.

All of the defendants pleaded not guilty and agreed to return for a pre-trial conference hearing on March 23, 2007. Judge William Pauley will then hear any pre-trial motions and set a trial date. Richman and lawyers for the other defendants told Pauley they would need ample time to wade through 12 boxes of evidence, mostly credit card statements and check receipts.

The lengthy paper trail comes from dozens of transactions made by the four co-defendants between October 1999 and January 2005.

The indictment says during that time period, Gonzalez designated $423,000 in state member items, or discretionary funds, to Pathways for Youth, a Bronx non-profit youth organization headed by Berger. In turn, Berger, 55, would send the money to either the West Bronx Neighborhood Association (WBNA), or the United Latin American Foundation (ULAF), which Castanos, 46, ran (his apartment was listed as ULAF’s address, according to the indictment). Castanos and Sanchez then signed checks to pay Gonzalez’s numerous credit card bills.

For example, in June of 2001, Berger co-signed a check from Pathways to WBNA for $40,000, the indictment said. Six days later, an unnamed co-conspirator from WBNA signed two separate checks, each for more than $10,000, to pay two of Gonzalez’s personal credit card bills.

The Norwood News first reported that Gonzalez was under federal investigation in the fall of 2004. This past summer, the Norwood News interviewed Gonzalez in WBNA’s office. It is connected to his Senate office and is adorned with paintings of Gonzalez and framed logos of his Dominican cigar company. Gonzalez refused to divulge how he spent some $290,000 a year in member items.

Sanchez, 50, works in Gonzalez’s office as a secretary, but was often listed as the sole employee of WBNA. The two had a relationship and lived together, according to a report in The Riverdale Press.

When asked to explain what the WBNA did to help Bronxites, Richman said, “What’s the West Bronx Neighborhood Association? I don’t know anything about them. It’s not up to us to explain anything. The burden of proof is on the prosecution.”

The newest indictment says that while Pathways for Youth performed a considerable amount of charitable activities, the WBNA and ULAF “primarily served as a conduit for paying personal expenses for Gonzalez and his criminal associates.”

In 2005, Pathways and an affiliate, the Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club in Co-op City, were cut off from city contracts – which ran into the millions of dollars – after allegations of impropriety stemming from a city investigation. In October, two Gloria Wise officials, including Charles Rosen, the group’s former executive director, pleaded guilty to third degree larceny charges. Both cases were investigated by the city’s Department of Investigation.