Staff Reports
Seventeen deputies at the Broward Sheriff’s Office in Florida have found themselves in a fine mess, getting charged with defrauding federal loan programs that were designed to help struggling businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s like they took a page out of the “How Not to Serve the Public” playbook! Can you believe it?
Florida Police Deputies Charged With Stealing Hundreds of Thousands in COVID-19 Relief Funds
https://t.co/u5jFBix0eL— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) October 17, 2023
So, these deputies, who are supposed to protect and serve their community, allegedly engaged in some sneaky wire fraud scheme with the Paycheck Protection Program and the Economic Injury Disaster Loan. Talk about biting the hand that feeds you! It seems Sheriff Gregory Tony has a wide range of talent at his disposal because the accused deputies come from different backgrounds within the agency. We’ve got law enforcement deputies and even some from the department of detention. Is this a case of “Crooked Cops Gone Wild”? It sure seems like it.
This whole mess stems from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, which was passed to help Americans who were financially struggling due to the pandemic. The program included forgivable loans to assist small businesses and their employees, but apparently, these deputies saw it as a golden ticket to line their own pockets. It’s like they thought they were playing Monopoly and decided to help themselves to some “community chest” funds. Shameful, really.
According to the Florida Bulldog, a nonprofit organization that caught wind of this whole debacle, the investigation began in November of last year. The Broward Sheriff’s Office of Inspector General smelled something fishy going on within their ranks and decided to take a closer look. Loan fraud seemed to be a growing fad among public servants. Well, it looks like these deputies just couldn’t resist hopping onto the fraud train.
In the end, 15 employees ended up facing federal charges, with one current employee and one former employee surrendering at the federal courthouse in Fort Lauderdale. Yikes! The maximum sentence for a wire fraud conviction is 20 years behind bars, and for conspiracy to commit wire fraud, it’s five years. That should be plenty of time for these deputies to reflect on their poor choices and for us to ponder just how deep the corruption goes. It’s a sad day for law enforcement, my friends. Just another reminder that power can sometimes corrupt even those who are supposed to protect us.
