Web Desk:

According to the national media, the former president of one of the nation’s largest police unions pleaded guilty Thursday to a federal wire fraud charge admitting to stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from the union to fund a lavish lifestyle that prosecutors say included high-end restaurants and luxury personal items.

Federal investigators said they believe he stole at least $600,000 from the union, which represents some 13,000 active and retired NYPD sergeants and is the fifth-largest police union in the country.

Ed Mullins, 61, New York, entered the plea to a wire fraud charge in Manhattan federal court before Judge John G. Koeltl, who set sentencing for May 25 and signed an order requiring him to forfeit $600,000.

During his plea, Mullins confessed that he stole money by falsely inflating expense reports between late 2017 and October 2021.

His lawyer, Thomas Kenniff, said he hoped that Mullins would ultimately be judged not by the criminal charge, but rather by the good things he did for the city and NYPD during his career.

The maximum sentence for the wire fraud charge Mullins pleaded guilty to is 20 years, but Kenniff said he expects a lower sentence.

Mullins resigned from the union in October 2021 after 18 years at the helm, hours after the FBI raided the union’s headquarters in lower Manhattan and his Long Island home. He retired from the NYPD one month later.

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