17 Broward sheriff’s employees face charges of fleecing federal pandemic loan program

The headquarters of the Broward Sheriff’s Office closed its front doors to the public early Thursday morning as a group of BSO deputies and corrections officers turned themselves in after being charged with ripping off a federal government loan program meant to help businesses that struggled to make ends meet during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A sign said the agency’s entrance was temporarily closed and yellow cones blocked the path to its front door.

Later that morning, 17 BSO employees appeared in Fort Lauderdale federal court on charges of fleecing the Paycheck Protection Program, the main pandemic relief benefit for struggling businesses. Almost all were charged in separate indictments with wire fraud, all received bonds, and almost all were scheduled for arraignments later this month.

“It’s all very disappointing,” BSO Sheriff Gregory Tony said during an afternoon news conference at the agency’s headquarters, noting that the accused BSO employees have been suspended and will be fired. “This is theft from the American people.”

Among the multiple pandemic loan fraud cases: BSO deputy Keith Mahlon Dunkley stands accused of setting up a company called Global Group Alliances and submitting two falsified applications for COVID-19 relief loans. He pleaded not guilty Thursday to a charge of conspiring to commit wire fraud.

Prosecutors say his company lied about its income on loan applications and submitted a fabricated IRS tax return with them. As a result, Dunkley’s business received a Paycheck Protection Program loan for $18,540 and another under the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program for $17,500 during the pandemic. The loans were small because of caps on a business with a sole proprietor.

Dunkley’s case was similar to the others filed in federal court in Fort Lauderdale. In total, the BSO employees received about $500,000 from the PPP and EIDL programs approved by Congress as part of the CARES Act after the pandemic swept the nation in March 2020.

Although the total amount of lost loan money seems relatively modest compared to dozens of other COVID-19 relief fraud cases in South Florida, the sheer number of law enforcement officers charged with breaking the law in one police agency stood out as shocking, authorities said.

At the afternoon news conference, U.S. Attorney Markenzy Lapointe said the BSO employees were law enforcement officers sworn to uphold the law and the public’s trust — but didn’t.

“They undermined that very trust,” Lapointe said — as each cashed in on the federal loan program guaranteed by the Small Business Administration. He noted that their crimes did not have a “conspiratorial component” with a ringleader at the center, pointing out that each one learned about the pandemic program by word of mouth and saw an opportunity to make some easy money.

Tony, the BSO sheriff, said that the investigation began in late 2021 with a probe of a single deputy and evidence from that case led to an evaluation of the entire 5,500-employee agency. He said the internal probe found that 100 deputies and corrections officers applied for COVID-19 business loans, and a referral was made to the FBI and U.S. Attorney’s Office. Of those, FBI agents found that a total of 17 BSO employees broke the law by falsifying information about their businesses so they could qualify for the pandemic relief loans.

“I hated to see some of the names on that list,” Tony said. “Some of them were good officers.”

According to sources, many of the deputies and jail officers were notified over the weekend and into Monday that they had been suspended. Their badges, uniforms and weapons were taken away. They worked in BSO’s offices and jails across Broward County, the sources said.

The federal investigation revealed for the first time an extensive network of law enforcement officers accused of defrauding the Paycheck Protection Program. Since its passage, South Florida has been a hotbed of PPP loan fraud committed by business people and others charged with stealing millions from the government program by falsifying loan information about their companies, employees, revenue, income and taxes. Several used their ill-gotten loans to buy expensive Lamborghini, Tesla, Porsche, Mercedes Benz and Bentley automobiles.

The Paycheck Protection Program allocated about $800 billion in loans through banks that were entirely guaranteed by the Small Business Administration and, in almost all instances, forgiven as long as the money was used for payroll and other legitimate overhead costs.

The crackdown on the BSO employees was led by the FBI and other federal agencies, along with prosecutors Marc Anton, Trevor Jones, David Snider and Bertha Mitrani.

Their prosecutions marked the latest of about 200 South Florida defendants charged with fraudulently obtaining PPP and related pandemic benefits since the viral outbreak. Most of the defendants have been convicted and sentenced to several years in prison.

South Florida, long known as the nation’s capital of fraud schemes, has incurred more than 150 PPP criminal cases over the past three years, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.