Broward deputy convicted of bilking loan program during pandemic. Others face sentencing
A Broward Sheriff’s Office deputy who had served on the SWAT team was found guilty Wednesday by a Miami federal jury of defrauding a government loan program that helped businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Alexandra Acosta, a 10-year BSO veteran, 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 guaranteed by the Small Business Administration.
After prosecutors presented their case on Monday and Tuesday, Acosta took the witness stand in Miami federal court to defend herself, to no avail. After three hours of deliberations Wednesday, the 12-person jury found her guilty of conspiring to defraud the U.S. government, committing wire fraud and making false statements to the SBA.
Acosta was the last of 17 BSO deputies — all arrested last fall on PPP and other loan fraud charges — to go to trial or cut a plea deal. Acosta, 38, now faces prison time, like one other BSO employee who was recently imprisoned.
Acosta’s co-defendant, Vilsaint St. Louis, the tax preparer, pleaded guilty to a single conspiracy charge in mid-May. He was given a one-year probationary sentence in addition to 100 hours of community service by U.S. District Judge Robert Scola at the recommendation of his defense attorney and federal prosecutors.
While Acosta faced trial in Miami, a former BSO lieutenant joined a long list of law enforcement colleagues who have pleaded guilty to and been sentenced for stealing thousands of dollars from the federally funded loan program approved by Congress in 2020.
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 resides 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, listed as the registered agent of EBG Properties, qualified for a $106,540 loan through a private lender, which disbursed the proceeds to his corporate account at JP Morgan Chase Bank.
Then, Gonder submitted a second fraudulent PPP loan application on behalf of The Impact Center of Broward County Inc., misrepresenting payroll, employee and tax records. Gonder, listed as the Impact Center’s president, was again approved by the private lender for a $61,210 loan. The money was disbursed to his other corporate account at JP Morgan Chase Bank
The PPP loans, guaranteed by the Small Business Administration, were supposed to cover payroll and other overhead expenses. But Gonder, like the other accused BSO employees, spent the money on himself instead of his purported companies, prosecutors said.
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. This past week, Gonder’s defense attorney, Michael Cohen, asked a federal judge for a two-year probationary sentence, saying he “has no criminal history and is the glue that holds his extended family together.”
But Anton, the prosecutor, countered that Gonder — a veteran law enforcement officer and a church minister in his community — stole from the pandemic loan program to “enrich himself” and should receive five months of prison and five months of house arrest, along with paying restitution.
Last Wednesday, 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.
“He’s a nice family man who made a mistake,” Cohen said Tuesday, stressing that Gonder paid back all of his PPP loan proceeds.
Gonder’s brother, Kamalis Brevard Gonder, who also worked as a BSO deputy in the detention department, pleaded guilty Monday to a wire fraud charge stemming from a $20,833 loan that he obtained through the Paycheck Protection Program in 2021. He is likely to receive a probationary sentence.
The only 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 and fraudulently collecting tens of thousands of dollars that she spent on herself.
Last week, prosecutor David Snider asked U.S. District Judge James Cohn to give Smith 10 months in prison. Her defense attorney, Johnny McCrary Jr., urged the judge to impose a probationary sentence with restitution like the punishment given to more than a dozen other BSO deputies who pleaded guilty rather than go to trial.
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.
Although the total amount of lost loan money was 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.
Last fall, at a news conference, Broward Sheriff Gregory Tony described the systemic PPP loan fraud activity in his agency as “theft from the American people.”
This story was originally published June 5, 2024 at 7:00 AM.
