A former New York City police sergeant was charged Wednesday with stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from a police union of which he was president.
Ed Mullins, former New York City Sergeants Benevolent Association president and former New York Police Department sergeant, surrendered himself to the FBI on Wednesday morning and was charged with one count of wire fraud, the Justice Department said.
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“As public servants, members of the SBA pay dues to a union that’s supposed to represent their best interests. As SBA president, Mullins allegedly went above and beyond to best serve his own interests. Our NYPD sergeants expect and deserve more from their union leadership than they received,” Michael Driscoll, assistant director-in-charge of FBI New York, said in a statement.
Mullins pleaded not guilty to the charges at a District Court in Manhattan and was released on $250,000 bail, the Associated Press reported.
He served as the president of the SBA from 2002 until 2021. From 2017 to 2021, Mullins made purchases at high-end restaurants and stores, then submitted inflated expense reports to the SBA claiming that he made legitimate SBA expenses, according to federal prosecutors.
He received over $1 million in reimbursements from the SBA during the alleged scheme, and prosecutors claim the majority of that was “fraudulently obtained.” Prosecutors cited an example in which he allegedly inflated a $45.92 charge at a wine bar in New Jersey to $845.92 in an expense report. They allege he submitted those inflated expense reports to the SBA treasurer, who approved them without seeing receipts. His purchases were often made on his personal credit card. The fund used to pay for those bills largely came from members’ dues.
The SBA represents current and former sergeants in the NYPD and is comprised of about 13,000 members. Active members typically pay about $1,300 annually in dues, and retired members pay $600 annually. It is the fifth-largest union in the United States, the Justice Department said.
Mullins was the focus of an FBI raid in October 2021 over the alleged misappropriation. The raid took place at the SBA headquarters and at his residence in Port Washington, Wisconsin.
“Like all of us, Ed Mullins is entitled to the presumption of innocence, and we ask you to withhold judgment until all the facts have been established,” an internal memo from the SBA executive board said at the time. “However, the day-to-day functioning and the important business of the SBA cannot be distracted by the existence of this investigation.”
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Mullins resigned as president of the SBA following the raid and filed for retirement from the NYPD.
The former union boss previously received criticism for releasing the arrest record of the daughter of former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio. An internal investigation led to an NYPD internal trial in which Mullins was found at fault and docked 70 vacation days. Mullins was also a vocal critic of de Blasio and other city officials.
