Edward Mullins, former president of the nation's fifth largest police "union," was sentenced to two years in jail for stealing more than $600,000 with fake expense reports and pleading guilty to wire fraud earlier this year. He stole from his own organization, the Sergeants Benevolent Association, which he presided over for nearly 20 years.
Mullins expensed personal purchases such as high-end meals, clothing, and luxury personal items, claiming they were SBA-related expenses, the press release says. He also routinely inflated the cost of the fraudulent expenses, "treating the SBA as his personal piggy bank," prosecutors said.
In addition to prison, Mullins was sentenced to three years of supervised release and he must pay back $600,000 to the SBA in addition to forfeiting $600,000, says the press release.
"It's an unfortunate situation," Thomas A. Kenniff, Mullins' attorney, told CNN. "Any time you have a client that is sent to prison, it's obviously disappointing, but we were pleased that the judge was willing to see all the many good acts that Mr. Mullins has done in his life that far outweigh anything associated with this one incident."
Leaving aside that juicy implication of "being a cop means he should be punished less, not held to higher standards," it sounds like his lawyer's not too displeased with the outcome. What would a normal person get for wire fraud exceeding $600k in New York?
