Putnam Man, Former Law Enforcement Union Advisor, Stole From Members

NEW YORK — Andrew Brown, a former financial advisor for the Law Enforcement Employees Benevolent Association, spent years helping its president and treasurer misappropriate money from LEEBA’s Annuity Fund, Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced Wednesday.

He and Kenneth Wynder Jr., a former New York State Trooper and the founder and president of LEEBA, were each convicted of one count of conspiracy of commit wire fraud and one count of wire fraud, each of which carry a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. Wynder was also convicted of one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States and four counts of tax evasion, each of which carry a maximum penalty of five years in prison.

"Kenneth Wynder and Andrew Brown raided a union-sponsored retirement plan for years, placing their personal interest over the union members they were duty bound to look out for," Williams said.

LEEBA has acted as the collective bargaining representative principally for law enforce­ment personnel at various city agencies including, at various times, DEP, the Department of Sanitation, and the Department of Transporta­tion.

Brown, 55, a Putnam Valley resident, was the founder of a Westchester-based financial services company.

From about 2012 up to and including 2020, he helped Wynder steal, embezzle, and misappropriate money from the Annuity Fund and individual members’ retirement accounts.

Wynder regularly used the funds to enrich himself at union members’ expense, including through unauthorized and excessive checks to himself and cash withdrawals for his own benefit and to pay insurance benefits for which Brown received commissions. In addition, Wynder caused the union to pay for various personal expenses such as the purchase of a Lexus automobile, travel expenses to Dallas to watch a Dallas Cowboys football game, and a sailing trip, all paid for by the union, and none of which were contemporaneously reported to the Internal Revenue Service.

They caused the withdrawal of more than $500,000 from the individual retirement accounts that constituted the Annuity Fund, thereby wiping out the entire balance of certain members’ accounts. They repeatedly lied to LEEBA’s members and prospective members about how they were purportedly using and protecting their retirement accounts and the LEEBA Annuity Fund.

Wynder also participated in a conspiracy with LEEBA’s then-Treasurer, Steven Whittick, to cause LEEBA to make payments to them by check and in cash, and to conceal those payments from the IRS.

On Nov. 17, 2021, Whittick was sentenced to 28 months in prison for conspiring to commit tax evasion and making false statements and was ordered to pay $179,766.80 in restitution to the IRS.

Brown and Wynder were convicted after a five-day jury trial before U.S. District Judge P. Kevin Castel and are scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 18.