On Oct. 11, the former chief of the Port of Los Angeles’ police department was sentenced to two years in federal prison for his role in a scheme involving a smartphone app designed to allow people to report criminal activities at the port.
Ex-chief Ronald Boyd had pled guilty in February to tax
evasion related to concealing over $1 million in income and making false
statements to the FBI.
Although he’d told FBI agents he had no financial interest
in a company developing a smartphone app called Portwatch, to allow people to
report criminal activities at the port, the truth was that he actually had 13.3
percent interest in it, according to the US Attorney’s Office.
He was given a stake in the company, according to federal
officials, by promising that the Portwatch contract would be awarded to a
company called BDB Digital Communications which he set up with two partners in
2011.
The parties involved with BDB also allegedly intended to
generate revenues by marketing and selling a similar app – called Metrowatch –
to other government agencies. Boyd admitted to lying to federal investigators
after telling them that he had no financial stake in Metrowatch, according to a
federal indictment.
Prosecutors also said he failed to disclose more than $1.1
million in income on his 2007 to 2011 tax returns from At Close Range Inc., an
LA-area security company he operated.
Boyd had been named the port’s police chief in January 2015,
just three months before being indicted by a federal grand jury. He was placed
on administrative leave by the port after the indictment, and retired from the
port last November. His duties were assumed by Deputy Port Police Chief Thomas
Gazsi. Gazsi was appointed to the chief position in December 2015.
