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A couple who worked as Broward deputies found guilty of bilking pandemic loan program

Updated: 26-10-2024, 01.46 PM

In May, a former Broward sheriff’s deputy took her chances at going to trial on charges of stealing thousands of dollars from a U.S. government loan program meant to keep businesses afloat during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Carolyn Denise Wade, 49, got lucky when Miami federal jurors failed to reach a unanimous verdict that she bilked about $21,000 from the Paycheck Protection Program, leading to a mistrial.

This past week, Wade’s luck ran out.

A new panel of Miami jurors found her guilty of a wire-fraud conspiracy and related charges — but this time, her husband, Tracy D. Wade, 51, a former BSO deputy, was tried with her and convicted of the same PPP loan crimes the second time around.

The Wades, who had worked in the agency’s detention department, are among about 20 former BSO deputies and correctional officers who have either been convicted at trial or pleaded guilty to the pandemic era’s most virulent crime: PPP loan fraud. Their arrests and convictions over the past year bring one of BSO’s worst scandals to a close.

According to trial evidence, the Wades were working as detention deputies in 2021 when they posed as sole business owners and collaborated with a Broward loan preparer to submit two fabricated PPP applications for about $21,000 each.

The Wades not only submitted fake IRS income tax forms to back up their false applications. After they received the proceeds, the couple then lied that they used the government funds for payroll so that the Small Business Administration would forgive their loans, according to prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in South Florida.

But in reality, the couple spent the SBA loans on themselves, prosecutors said.

The SBA, working with financial institutions around the country, was in charge of the nearly $900 million PPP loan program approved by Congress as part of the CARES Act in 2020. The agency guaranteed all PPP loans and forgave the vast majority after confirming that they were used for legitimate business expenses, according to SBA records.

At their trial that ended on Wednesday, the Wades were found guilty of conspiracy, wire fraud and making false statements to the SBA. They face prison time, but because the theft of government funds is in the tens of thousands of dollars, their punishment will likely be modest.

Before the couple’s trial, Haydee Rivero, the loan preparer who assisted the couple and others in filing false PPP applications, pleaded guilty last month to defrauding the government and making false statements to the SBA.

Other Broward deputy cases

The Wades’ trial follows that of another Broward Sheriff’s Office deputy who had served on the agency’s SWAT team. In August, Alexandra Acosta, 38, was sentenced to four months in prison after a Miami federal jury found her guilty of defrauding the SBA’s pandemic program of tens of thousands of dollars.

Alexandra Acosta, a 10-year BSO veteran, was also ordered to pay a $4,000 fine by U.S. District Judge Robert Scola.

Federal prosecutor Trevor Jones described Acosta as a police officer with a “good career” who cared for her family, but also said she deserved to be punished for stealing from the relief program and betraying the public’s trust.

“Acosta has lied multiple times before, during, and after her crime—including while under oath at trial,” Jones wrote in a sentencing memo recommending that she be imprisoned for 10 months.

But her defense attorney, Brian Silber, argued for less time, citing Acosta’s academic and athletic scholarships to college that led her on the path to law enforcement and community service. He described her as a “very brave deputy who assumed great personal risk to save others.”

Acosta, of Tamarac, was convicted of using a real estate company with help from a tax preparer to obtain a $20,180 loan from the federal Paycheck Protection Program in 2021. Prosecutors said she falsified income, tax and other records to qualify for the loan.

Acosta’s co-defendant, Vilsaint St. Louis, the tax preparer, pleaded guilty to a single conspiracy charge in May. He was given a one-year probationary sentence in addition to 100 hours of community service by Scola at the recommendation of his defense attorney and federal prosecutors.

The only other BSO employee convicted of PPP loan fraud to be sent to prison: Stephanie D. Smith. The former BSO deputy school resource officer was found guilty in March of wire fraud charges for submitting falsified loan applications for two companies through the pandemic program. She collected tens of thousands of dollars that she spent on herself.

In May, U.S. District Judge James Cohn gave the 28-year BSO veteran a sentence of seven months and ordered her to surrender to prison and repay $31,108 to the federal government. Cohn also imposed a $2,000 fine.

A problem adds up in one agency

While Smith and Acosta faced trials in Miami, many of their BSO colleagues pleaded guilty to stealing tens of thousands of dollars from the federally funded loan program. The total amount of lost loan money — about $500,000 — was relatively modest compared to dozens of other COVID-19 relief fraud cases in South Florida. But the number of law enforcement officers charged with breaking the law in one police agency stood out as shocking, authorities said.

Among them: Former BSO Lt. Ernest Bernard Gonder Jr. admitted in Miami federal court that he fleeced more than $167,000 from the Paycheck Protection Program — much more than the other BSO employees who were arrested in October on charges of stealing tens of thousands of dollars each from the same program.

Gonder, who lives in Port St. Lucie, submitted a PPP loan application in 2021 on behalf of EBG Properties LLC, in which he fabricated information about the company’s monthly payroll, number of employees, and taxes, according to charges filed by prosecutor Marc Anton.

Gonder, who formerly worked in the BSO Department of Detention for more than 20 years, pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud in March. U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams gave Gonder a sentence of one-year house arrest along with five years of probation. He was also ordered to pay back the government.

Gonder’s brother, Kamalis Brevard Gonder, who also worked as a BSO deputy in the detention department, pleaded guilty in June to a wire fraud charge stemming from a $20,833 loan that he obtained through the Paycheck Protection Program in 2021.

In August, U.S. District Judge Raag Singhal sentenced Gonder to two years’ probation and ordered him to pay back the money to the government.

BSO Sheriff Gregory Tony called their crime “theft from the American people.”