A former NYPD sergeant was sentenced to two years’ probation Tuesday for committing federal tax crimes to help out convicted former union chief Ed Mullins.
The term was handed down to Dennis Ostermann, 68, by Manhattan Federal Judge Lorna Schofield, with the judge declining to impose the six to 12 months of prison time requested by prosecutors.
The ex-sergeant of East Rockaway in 2018 launched a supposed health benefit management business, HB Consultants, that he would use to cut checks totaling $150,000 to Mullins after the disgraced former Sergeants Benevolent Association president — at that point embezzling funds from his union — was stuck for cash to pay back a loan, according to court docs.
“Ostermann’s conduct could have stopped there. But it did not,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Alexandra Rothman wrote in the government’s sentencing submission, going on to detail how Ostermann then lied on tax forms by designating the two $75,000 checks as “legal fees.”
Mullins, who was SBA president for more than two decades, was previously convicted of looting the union’s treasury for years to compliment his $250,000 salary. Soon after pleading guilty to wire fraud in January 2023, he was sentenced to two years in prison and three years of probation.
By fudging the tax returns, Ostermann managed to hide the payments to Mullins and reduce his own tax burden, Rothman wrote, noting the ex-controller brazenly lied about the conduct when he was ultimately confronted by the feds.
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Luiz C. Ribeiro/for New York Daily News Former Sergeants Benevolent Association President Ed Mullins (Luiz C. Ribeiro for New York Daily News)
“Ostermann was a licensed tax preparer, and a law enforcement official. He understood the importance of filing accurate tax returns, and abiding by the law,” the prosecutor later wrote.
“Moreover, even if Ostermann had been pressured into giving the president money, that in no way explains his choice to misrepresent the use of that money on HB Consultants’ tax returns, and then lie to law enforcement thereafter.”
Ostermann served as an NYPD officer and later a sergeant after joining the department in 1979. He copped in June to willfully aiding and assisting in the preparation of a false tax return, which carries up to three years in prison.
Ostermann retired in 1999 and soon after became controller of the SBA, making money on the side while self-employed as an accountant.
Reached for comment, the SBA referred the Daily News to the union’s lawyer, John D’Alessandro.
“He no longer works for the SBA,” D’Alessandro said, declining to say when Ostermann parted ways with the union and under what terms.
In Ostermann’s sentencing submission, the SBA’s moneyman sought to portray him as an innocent victim of Mullins’ deception.
“No one at the SBA suspected that Mullins was dishonest, that he was lying about his expenses or submitting false reports—they trusted him implicitly. And while there were checks and balances set up within the SBA, including outside auditors, the system was also based on trust and Mullins apparently found ways to exploit the trust that others had put in him,” his attorney Peter Brill wrote.
“Dennis Ostermann continues to be the most reliable employee of the SBA—his commitment to that organization has not wavered, despite the deep shame and embarrassment he faced when the government circulated its press release about his guilty plea to the world. Everyone in the NYPD and beyond now knows what he did. We suggest that that is by far the worst punishment for a lifelong member of the law enforcement community.”