New York ? Even with their baseball season finished, the New York Mets’ losing streak continues.

A trusted ex-team employee, three of his co-workers and two other suspects surrendered Thursday for allegedly stealing $2 million from the team between 1994 and 2000, Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown announced.

Former Mets executive Russell Richardson, 46, of Hempstead, was identified as the reputed ringleader of the group. Richardson, who spent 17 years with the club, used his insider’s position to illegally make $600,000, Brown said.

“There was a series of schemes involving bribes, kickbacks and other illegal payment,” Brown said. The money was taken from Sterling Doubleday Enterprises, the Mets’ parent company, through five separate scams, the prosecutor said.

It was the latest in a series of embarrassing off-field foibles for the Mets, from All Star catcher Mike Piazza’s “I’m not gay” news conference to allegations of widespread marijuana use to the firing of manager Bobby Valentine.

The on-field effort wasn’t much better, with the Mets finishing last in the NL East despite a $95 million payroll.

Richardson, the team’s one-time director of technical services, faces up to 25 years in prison for alleged grand larceny, falsifying business records and other crimes. Co-defendant Haim Shaked, 47, of Brooklyn, a vendor who did business with the Mets, faced the same possible sentence as Richardson.

Four other defendants faced up to seven years on lesser charges.

Meanwhile, New York Mets pitcher Grant Roberts met with prosecutors investigating his accusation that a woman used a picture of him smoking marijuana in an extortion attempt.

Roberts and agent Seth Levinson have said Jodi Turner tried to extort money from the pitcher before releasing the 1998 picture, which appeared in Newsday illustrating an article saying that at least seven Mets were suspected of using marijuana this season.

Turner could face possible charges of grand larceny and coercion, carrying a jail term of up to seven years.

Expos Executives of the Expos and the commissioner’s office met with Puerto Rican officials Thursday to discuss moving some of Montreal’s home games to Hiram Bithorn Stadium next year. Atlanta businessman Charles Vaughn and a group of Puerto Rican investors are interested in buying the Expos and moving the team to San Juan in 2004.

Washington, D.C., and Portland, Ore., also are interested in having the Expos move to their cities.

Indians Cleveland signed pitcher Jeremy Guthrie, its first-round pick in the June draft, on Thursday. Guthrie agreed to a four-year contract with an option year after the Indians unsuccessfully tried to sign him all summer. He was the No. 22 pick out of Stanford.