Mullins, ex-SBA president, gets 2-year prison term for defrauding union

Edward D. Mullins, the strident former president of the Sergeants Benevolent Association, was sentenced Aug. 3 to two years in prison for swindling hundreds of thousands dollars from the union he headed for nearly 20 years.

Mullins had pleaded guilty in January to federal charges of wire fraud for defrauding the SBA to pay for gourmet meals, travel, luxury items from Tiffany & Co. and Hermes, clothing, jewelry, home appliances, and even a relative’s college tuition, according to federal prosecutors.

The sentence, imposed by U.S. District Judge John G. Koeltl, is less than the 41 months prosecutors had sought in a sentencing letter submitted last week.

“Motivated by greed and emboldened by power … [Mullins], a public official, abused

the position of trust that he had occupied as the President of the SBA for almost two decades and

selfishly stole hundreds of thousands of dollars for his own personal gain,” they wrote in the 13-page letter to Koeltl.

The fiery and outspoken Mullins had headed the nation’s fifth-largest police union until he resigned in October 2021 under a cloud of allegations following sweeps of his Port Washington home and the SBA’s Tribeca offices by federal agents. 

The feds later alleged that Mullins, who made $133,785 in NYPD salary and received an $87,000 union stipend, starting in 2017 swindled the SBA of more than $1 million to fund “a lavish lifestyle” by submitting bogus or inflated reimbursement claims to the union treasurer. 

Mullins managed the scheme one of three ways: By including meals on expense reports that were not union-related, by inflating the costs of meals whether they were SBA-related or not, and by recategorizing expenses for clothing and supermarket tabs as SBA-related expenses. He submitted the bogus or inflated expense reports to the union’s treasurer biweekly, sometimes more often, rarely providing receipts, prosecutors said. 

They charged that he turned in more than 100 sham expense reports. “In doing so, Mullins brazenly stole from the same dues-paying members of the SBA that he had pledged to protect,” they wrote. 

‘Treated SBA as his piggy-bank’

At least once, the then-union leader purchased $600 in gift cards to a pricey restaurant, whose prix-fixe menu was priced at about $150, expensed the cost to the SBA and then gifted the cards to family members.

In one of several such instances, Federal officials said, he changed a $45.92 charge from a New Jersey wine bar to reflect that he had spent $845.92 there. He once recast a $96.16 supermarket bill as a $396.16 restaurant tab.

Altogether, Mr. Mullins was reimbursed $69,655 in 2017; $265,465 in 2018; $344,909 in 2019; $174,144 in 2020; and $153,836 through October 2021, when he was forced to resign. 

He kept track of his ersatz expenses and reimbursements by keeping two copies of his credit card statements, which were seized by FBI agents when they searched his home. One set, labeled with sticky notes marked “Clean Copy,” had no markings. A second set, labeled “Work Copy” or “Work Sheet,” had relevant annotations on it. 

“Mullins publicly vowed to protect the interests of the thousands of active and retired sergeants that he represented. But behind the scenes, Mullins stole from the SBA and its members, treating the SBA as his personal piggy bank,” U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement following the sentencing. “In doing so, Mullins disgraced his uniform, broke the law, and undermined the public’s trust in law enforcement.  As today’s sentence demonstrates, no one — not even high-ranking union bosses — is above the law.”

As part of his sentence, Mullins must reimburse the union $600,000 and forfeit another $600,000. The Department of Justice will oversee the collection and remittance of those funds. “We have not been provided a timeline for when the SBA will receive restitution, but have been assured that the restitution will be fully remitted,” the union’s attorney, Andrew Quinn, said in an email.

Mullins will begin his prison term in November. His guilty plea and sentencing will not affect his monthly NYPD pension of $10,440.27.

richardk@thechiefleader.com