Missouri officer, wife indicted for fraud against Fraternal Order of Police

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – A federal grand jury indicted a St. Joseph, Missouri police officer and his spouse Wednesday for allegedly stealing tens of hundreds of {dollars} from a neighborhood lodge of the Fraternal Order of Police.

Prosecutors with the U.S. Legal professional’s Workplace of the Western District of Missouri mentioned Michael and Sarah Hardin served as senior officers of the FOP Northwest Missouri Lodge #3 for a number of years previous to the indictment.

The lodge has roughly 300 members from legislation enforcement companies in 9 counties throughout northwest Missouri.

Michael, 46, was the president of the lodge. Sarah, 42, served as treasurer. She labored as a deputy with the Buchanan County Sheriff’s Division on the time.

In keeping with the indictment, the Hardins used debit playing cards linked to the lodge’s financial institution accounts to make $99,000 in private purchases over a four-year interval, from December 2015 to December 2019. The couple allegedly didn’t report their spending habits to the lodge, nor did they search approval to make use of lodge funds for his or her purchases.

Sarah Hardin was charged with 4 counts of wire fraud. Michael Hardin was charged with three counts of wire fraud.