Seventeen Florida sheriff’s deputies were charged with stealing around half a million dollars in money intended for COVID pandemic assistance.
Court documents state that the Broward County deputies, who are charged separately, are accused of a number of offenses.
While one deputy is charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, which carries a potential term of five years in jail, the majority are charged with wire fraud, which carries a sentence of up to twenty years in prison.
During a press conference, Broward County Sheriff Gregory Tony said that the eight law enforcement deputies and the nine detention deputies have been suspended. He claimed that their termination is being handled legally by his office.
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“At the end of the day, they will be gone,” Tony replied.
Markenzy Lapointe, the U.S. attorney for the southern district of Florida, said the deputies conspiratorially stole approximately $500,000 from the Paycheck Protection Program and the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program.
“No matter the amount, we will not allow limited federal tax dollars, which were intended to provide a lifeline to small businesses as they struggled to stay afloat during the economically devastating pandemic lockdown, to be swindled by those who were employed in a position of trust and cast aside their duty to uphold and abide by the law,” Lapointe stated.
After realizing that pandemic relief fraud was a growing tendency in public service agencies and getting a tip that some of his staff might have engaged in fraud,
Tony claimed his office started looking into the 5,600 employees of the agency in late 2021.
After discovering that over 100 workers had applied for COVID-19 relief loans, investigators from the Broward Sheriff’s Office subsequently handed the case off to the Federal Reserve Board and the U.S. attorney’s office.
“For five years, I’ve maintained an organization committed to transparency and accountability,” Tony stated. “I will continue to expect integrity and commitment to excellence from every BSO employee.”
According to Lapointe, his agency is still looking into potential fraud.
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