More than a dozen Broward Sheriff’s Office employees face serious charges as the entire department undergoes a wide-ranged COVID-19 PPP loan investigation.
17 employees have been accused of fraudulently obtaining Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans and Economic Injury Disaster Loans, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida Markenzy Lapointe said.
Big story from the @Florida_Bulldog this morning: "Dozens" of @browardsheriff employees, many of them officers, are going to be federally charged for COVID PPP fraud "any day now."https://t.co/iwmnlUHLx9
— SFDB (@sfdb) October 11, 2023
“All 17 defendants were employed as sworn BSO deputies, all 17 defendants are charged with participating in various schemes to defraud the United States Small Business Administration by providing false information regarding their eligibility for financial assistance,” Lapointe said at a news conference Thursday afternoon with Broward Sheriff Gregory Tony.
The PPP loans were established during the pandemic to help various businesses and those who were self-employed continue to operate as well as pay their employees throughout the COVID-19 lockdown and the restriction on business operations.
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Broward County Sheriff Gregory Tony said during a news conference that the investigation was wide-ranging: all 5,500 employees were investigated. The agency identified roughly 100 employees who took PPP loans, later narrowing down the list of employees facing federal charges.
“I hate to see that, knowing some of the individuals and seeing the names on that list as being indicted, some of them were good officers,” Tony said. “But you’re only as good as the last act and conduct that you execute, and so if you’re gonna be participating in criminal activities, we don’t want you in this profession.”
Collectively, the 17 charged took just under $500,000 from the federal government. Tony, who called the allegations “very disappointing,” said all of the charged employees are in the process of being fired.
“We still have to follow proper protocols and since these are protected members with union rights and other different statutory obligations from the investigation practices that we have to follow, but I’m not going to sugarcoat or dance around this — at the end of the day, they will be gone,” Tony said.
The sheriff added, “If they’re being criminally charged, there’s no place for this in this organization and their due process components will be executed and we will go through that process, but this one here is a no-brainer. How can we have anyone wearing a badge that is stealing from the American people?”
Lapointe said the investigation remains ongoing.
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