Over a dozen staff on the Broward Sheriff’s Workplace (BSO) have been charged with fraudulently acquiring Paycheck Safety Program loans.
The fraud initially got here to gentle in a report revealed by the Florida Bulldog earlier this week.
At a press convention on Thursday with Broward Sheriff Gregory Tony, the U.S. Lawyer for the Southern District of Florida Markenzy Lapointe mentioned {that a} complete of 17 staff, all of whom are “sworn BSO deputies,” have been charged with fraud.
“All 17 defendants are charged with taking part in numerous schemes to defraud america Small Enterprise Administration by offering false info concerning their eligibility for monetary help,” Lapointe mentioned.
The workers collectively acquired round $500,000, which they diverted for their very own private use.
Whereas the 17 defendants didn’t commit the offenses in the middle of their official duties, “this doesn’t in any method diminish the seriousness of what the defendants are alleged to have achieved right here,” Lapointe mentioned. “Regulation enforcement officers stand ready of belief to the members of the general public who they serve.”
Lapointe added that the fraud didn’t look like coordinated and mentioned all 17 staff are being charged individually.
Sheriff’s assertion
For his half, the Broward Sheriff mentioned he was disillusioned within the officers.
“I hate to see that, figuring out a few of the people and seeing the names on that record as being indicted, a few of them have been good officers,” Tony mentioned. “However you’re solely pretty much as good because the final act and conduct that you simply execute, and so for those who’re gonna be taking part in prison actions, we don’t need you on this occupation.”
The investigation went again so far as 2021. The sheriff mentioned he had additionally instructed the workplace’s corruption unit to analyze all 5,500 BSO staff “to make sure that we might not go away one stone unturned.”
The sheriff mentioned the workplace has labored too laborious to permit “one or two people” to destroy the general public belief that the workplace has constructed inside the group.
He additionally urged BSO staff to proceed to report cases of crime and wrongdoing inside the group to guard the BSO’s repute and values. “For those who see one thing, I anticipate you to say one thing … if there’s every other kind of corruption or misconduct from any colleague inside this place,” he mentioned.
PPP mortgage fraud
The Paycheck Safety Program is a $953-billion enterprise mortgage program established by america federal authorities throughout the Trump administration in 2020 by means of the Coronavirus Help, Aid, and Financial Safety Act (CARES Act) to assist sure companies, self-employed staff, sole proprietors, sure nonprofit organizations, and tribal companies proceed paying their staff.
Fraudsters, nevertheless, took benefit of this system.
A 2021 working paper by three finance professors on the College of Texas at Austin estimated that about 15% of this system’s loans, representing $76 billion (about 1.8 million loans out of the entire of about 11.8 million loans), had a minimum of one indication of fraud. About 1.2 million loans (totaling $38 billion) had a minimum of two indications of fraud.
