Former Police Union Chief Gets Prison Time for $600K Fraud

For almost 20 years, Ed Mullins served as the head of one of the largest police unions in America. Now, the former president will spend two years behind bars for perpetrating fraud against the Sergeants Benevolent Association, which represents the 13,000 active and retired sergeants of the New York Police Department, reports CBS News. Mullins was sentenced Thursday in a Manhattan federal court for stealing $600,000 from a union fund between 2017 and 2021, after prosecutors laid out a case on how he'd taken the money and used it to pay for luxury personal items and meals at fancy restaurants, among other things, per the AP.

NY1 reports that Mullins—who took in a salary of about $250,000 before retiring in late 2021, per his attorney—was able to siphon off the funds by filing hundreds of fake expense reports. "Mullins publicly vowed to protect the interests of the thousands of active and retired sergeants that he represented," US Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement. "But behind the scenes, Mullins stole from the SBA and its members, treating the SBA as his personal piggy bank." "Behind closed doors, he was a thief, a liar," added Assistant US Attorney Alexandra Rothman, per the AP. Mullins' home and office at SBA headquarters were raided by the FBI in October 2021, and he resigned from the SBA and police force soon after.

"My regret cannot be put into words," Mullins, 61, said in court Thursday. "I make no excuses. I made an incredibly bad decision." Prosecutors had asked for a sentence of 3 1/2 years. "While we firmly believe the goals of this sentence could have been achieved without incarceration, we are pleased that the court sentenced Mr. Mullins well below the 41 months the government sought," his attorney said in a statement, per NY1. Mullins, who pleaded guilty in January to the charges, was also sentenced to three years of supervised release, and will have to not only forfeit $600,000, but also pay the SBA that same amount, per a release from the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York. (More Ed Mullins stories.)