68°
Edward Mullins, age 61, of Port Washington, was sentenced to two years behind bars in federal court in Manhattan on Thursday, Aug. 3, after pleading guilty to fraud.
From 2002 to 2021, Mullins served as president of the Sergeants Benevolent Association (SBA), which represents all current and former sergeants in the NYPD.
According to the US Attorney’s Office in the Southern District, he admitted to using his personal credit card to pay for meals at expensive restaurants and buying luxury personal items before submitting false and inflated expense reports to the SBA for reimbursement.
Mullins regularly included meals that were not work related and recategorized other personal expenses - including clothing and supermarket purchases - as SBA-related meals in order to get even more money, prosecutors said.
The fraudulent expenses were paid through the SBA’s Contingent Fund, which is funded primarily through the annual dues of the organization’s roughly 13,000 members.
Altogether, Mullins made over $600,000 from the hundreds of fraudulent expense reports submitted between 2017 and 2021.
“Mullins publicly vowed to protect the interests of the thousands of active and retired sergeants that he represented. But behind the scenes, Mullins stole from the SBA and its members, treating the SBA as his personal piggy bank,” said US Attorney Damian Williams.
“In doing so, Mullins disgraced his uniform, broke the law, and undermined the public’s trust in law enforcement.”
In addition to his prison term, Mullins was sentenced to three years of supervised release and ordered to pay $600,000 in restitution. He must also forfeit $600,000.
Click here to follow Daily Voice Massapequa and receive free news updates.
