A former Wilmington Police sergeant has pleaded guilty to fraudulently obtaining a pandemic loan claiming he needed it to pay employees he didn’t have at his personal fitness business he operated out of his home in Bear, according to court documents obtained by Delaware Online/The News Journal.
Michael Coleman, 43, pleaded guilty to one count of bank fraud on Wednesday afternoon.
“Mr. Coleman was a public servant who took federal funds from a public program that was meant to provide financial support to struggling businesses during a global pandemic when he did not qualify for those funds,” U.S. Attorney for the District of Delaware David C. Weiss said in a statement. “My office, in partnership with our federal, state and local law enforcement partners, will continue to identify and prosecute individuals who illegally obtained [Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security] CARES Act funding.”
A Wilmington police spokesman declined to comment on Coleman’s plea.
Coleman, who claimed in a police recruitment video that he’d played in the NFL for about three years, joined the Wilmington Police Department in 2007. His last day as a member of the department was Oct. 6 — 11 days before he was federally charged.