{"id":174300,"date":"2026-03-25T06:30:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T06:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/174300\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T06:30:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T06:30:10","slug":"nypd-sergeants-union-honcho-gets-zero-jail-time-for-tax-fraud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/174300\/","title":{"rendered":"NYPD sergeants union honcho gets zero jail time for tax fraud"},"content":{"rendered":"

The former top money manager at the NYPD\u2019s sergeants union got zero jail time at his sentencing Tuesday after admitting to committing tax fraud to help his crooked former boss with legal bills. <\/a><\/p>\n

Dennis Ostermann, who had served as controller of the Sergeants Benevolent Association, claimed he \u201ccouldn\u2019t measure his remorse\u201d as he was sentenced to two years of probation for lying on his tax returns about steering $150,000 to his embattled ex-SBA boss Ed Mullins.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope that you see that this lapse in judgment will be in my forethoughts for the rest of my life,\u201d the 68-year-old, reading from a prepared written statement, told Judge Lorna Schofield during a hearing in Manhattan federal court.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always prided myself on doing the right thing,\u201d added Ostermann, who was axed by the union Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\"AOstermann admitted to lying on his company\u2019s tax returns about payouts toward his ex-boss Ed Mullins, above.<\/p>\n

Ostermann pleaded guilty in June 2025 to disguising the $150,000 payoff to Mullins\u2019 lawyers as phony \u201clegal fees\u201d he claimed as expenses for a separate company he founded called HB Consultants.<\/p>\n

The bogus tax returns were filed in 2018 and 2019, as his former boss and longtime friend Mullins was being probed for embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars in union dues <\/a>to splurge on high-end meals, clothes and other goodies.<\/p>\n

Ostermann kept his job as the union\u2019s controller even after he\u2019d already pleaded guilty in the case \u2014 a fact that Judge Schofield said she factored in while deciding not to jail him.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe union still trusts you, which I think is noteworthy,\u201d Schofield said in court Tuesday.<\/p>\n

But Ostermann lost his job within hours of being sentenced, the union said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs of today, Dennis Ostermann no longer works for the Sergeants Benevolent Association,\u201d an SBA lawyer, John D\u2019Alessandro, told The Post.<\/p>\n

Ostermann will also make a $35,052 restitution payment and pay a $4,000 fine.<\/p>\n

Manhattan federal prosecutor Alexandra Rothman had asked the judge to sentence Ostermann to between six months and a year in jail.<\/p>\n

Anything less, Rothman wrote in court papers, would be a \u201cmere slap on the wrist, and would not sufficiently reflect the nature and seriousness of the offense.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ostermann\u2019s defense lawyer, Peter Brill, had asked for leniency, calling the Long Island native \u201ca decent, honest, hard-working man who had a lapse in judgment when he chose to help a lifelong friend.\u201d<\/p>\n

Osterrmann is also a devoted member of his local church in Nassau County, attended Catholic schools as a child in Brooklyn and went to St. John\u2019s University in Queens, his lawyer wrote to the court.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was, in fact, an altar boy,\u201d Brill said in court papers. <\/p>\n

As of at least last September, Ostermann also \u201cstill does people\u2019s taxes and some accounting as a side business,\u201d the attorney added.<\/p>\n

Mullins separately pleaded guilty to his embezzlement scheme in June 2023 and was sentenced to two years in prison.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The former top money manager at the NYPD\u2019s sergeants union got zero jail time at his sentencing Tuesday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":174301,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7022,70960,277,57,9,11,10,103,3209,70961,24226,58],"class_list":["post-174300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-corruption","tag-ed-mullins","tag-manhattan-federal-court","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-nypd","tag-sentencing","tag-sergeants-benevolent-association","tag-tax-fraud","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174300","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=174300"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174300\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/174301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=174300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=174300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=174300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}