A former Metropolitan Police Department officer from Baltimore has admitted to committing loan fraud under the guise of the pandemic relief efforts. According to a release from the U.S. Attorney's Office, Kalynn Fields, aged 34, entered a guilty plea for wire fraud, a charge that could mean up to 20 years behind bars.
The deceit centered around $35,000 in loans, which Fields secured through the Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDLs) and Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans using sham companies. Court documents reveal that Fields, who was a patrol officer at the MPD at the time, started these companies in mid-2022. According to the announcement by U.S. Attorney Edward R. Martin, Jr., and others, Fields failed to notify the MPD of these external business ventures, which was a clear violation of department policy.
Notably, the loan applications were riddled with falsities—a ploy that paid off initially, with Fields seeing the loans forgiven. U.S. District Court Judge Trevor P. McFadden oversaw the guilty plea and scheduled the sentencing for June 20. The judge presides over a case that echoes the broader misuse of pandemic relief funds, a national concern that has seen many instances since the programs' inception.
The investigation was a multi-agency effort involving the FBI Washington Field Office, the Metropolitan Police Department, and the U.S. Small Business Administration Office of Inspector General, spearheaded by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia. Assistant U.S. Attorney Rebecca G. Ross leads the prosecution on a case that reminds us of the vulnerability of emergency relief programs to fraudulent exploitation.
