Ex union prez Mullins pleads guilty

Port Washington resident admits to defrauding Sergeants Benevolent Association of $1M

BY ROBERT PELAEZ

Edward Mullins, the former head of the NYPD’s Sergeants Benevolent Association and a Port Washington resident, pleaded guilty to defrauding the 13,000-member union of $1 million on Thursday, federal officials announced.

Mullins, who was charged with wire fraud in February 2022, admitted to his involvement in a scheme to collect hundreds of thousands of dollars from the Sergeants Benevolent Association by submitting falsified expense reports.

Around September 2017, officials said, Mullins defrauded the association by using his personal credit card to pay for various luxury items and meals at high-end restaurants before submitting the inflated expense reports for reimbursement.

In one instance, officials said, Mullins submitted an expense report to the association’s treasurer for a $3,000 meal at a Manhattan restaurant, when the meal had no relevance to police work. Mullins also rarely included receipts when seeking reimbursements, according to officials.

Mullins was ultimately reimbursed for more than $1 million, a majority of which was fraudulently obtained, officials said.

“Edward Mullins promised to look out for the thousands of hard-working NYPD Sergeants who are members of the SBA,” U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams said. “Instead, as admitted today in federal court, he stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from them to fund his lavish lifestyle.”

Mullins earned more than $220,000 from his job at the NYPD in 2020, according to public data. The Sergeants Benevolent Association manages a $264 million retirement fund and its 13,000 members make it the fifth-largest police union in the nation, according to the group’s website.

Mullins, who served as a member of the NYPD since 1982, assumed his role as president