THE THIN BLUE LINE
Pleaded Guilty to Wire Fraud for Stealing Over $600,000
Edward Mullins, who served as the president of the Sergeants Benevolent Association (SBA) from 2002 to 2021, filed inflated expense reports to the union, requesting reimbursement for personal purchases and asking for more money back than the purchase’s price, according to a press release by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of New York.
“Beginning in 2017, Mullins devised a scheme to steal hundreds of thousands of dollars from the SBA,” the press release states. “Mullins used his personal credit card to pay for meals at high-end restaurants and to purchase luxury personal items, among other things, and then submitted false and inflated expense reports to the SBA, representing that his charges were legitimate SBA expenditures when in fact they were not.”
“Mullins also inflated the costs of his meals—whether SBA-related or not,” the release continues. “For example, if the actual cost of a meal was $522.55, Mullins would seek reimbursement from the SBA for $822.55 and pocket the difference. Mullins would also take personal expenses like supermarket bills and claim them on his expense reports as SBA-related meals for which he also sought reimbursement.”
The plea capped the downfall of Mullins, who was once one of the most prominent police union leaders in the country. He visited President Donald Trump in the White House and was a regular on Fox News.
The Sergeants Benevolent Association represents about 13,000 active and retired NYPD sergeants and controls a $264 million retirement fund.
Mullins was a cop for 40 years.
Mullins agreed to forfeit $600,000 to the government and to pay $600,000 in restitution to the SBA. The union sued him in March 2022 for embezzling the funds. He faces up to 20 years for the conviction when he’s sentenced on May 25 but is unlikely to serve that long. Mullins is 61.
