A former Miami Gardens police officer pleaded guilty this week to lying about his company's earnings in order to secure a nearly $64,000 federal loan meant to help small businesses survive the COVID-19 pandemic. Alvin Bernard, 38, admitted to making a false statement to the Small Business Administration after claiming his company, Vanity Properties LLC, brought in $127,881 in gross revenue when he applied for the funds.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Bernard's guilty plea came Monday, and he used the inflated revenue figure to obtain a $63,900 Economic Injury Disaster Loan while serving as a sworn officer with the Miami Gardens Police Department. Bernard served as the sole manager and authorized representative of Vanity Properties LLC at the time, prosecutors say. The case was also flagged by FBI Miami, which shared the plea update from its official X account this week.
Career Forfeiture Built Into the Plea Deal
As part of his federal plea agreement, Bernard agreed to resign from the Miami Gardens Police Department, surrender his Florida law enforcement certification, and permanently refrain from working in law enforcement, per the Justice Department's announcement. He now faces a maximum sentence of up to two years in federal prison for the false statement charge. Under federal law, making a false statement to the Small Business Administration or another federal agency carries that same two-year statutory ceiling, notably lower than the 20-year maximum tied to wire fraud charges filed against other officers in similar cases. Applicants for federal disaster loans were required to certify all financial figures under penalty of perjury.
The Economic Injury Disaster Loan program was created under the 2020 CARES Act to give small businesses emergency financial help directly from the SBA, unlike Paycheck Protection Program loans, which were processed through commercial banks. Federal scrutiny of these loans intensified after September 2022, when the Department of Justice selected the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida to lead one of three national COVID-19 Fraud Strike Force Teams, a unit coordinating the FBI, IRS Criminal Investigation and the SBA's Office of Inspector General.
Part of a Recurring Pattern Among South Florida Officers
Bernard's case is the latest in a string of pandemic loan fraud prosecutions involving South Florida law enforcement personnel. In May 2025, City of Miami Police Officer Tramaine Liptrot pleaded guilty to wire fraud after using falsified IRS tax records to net more than $200,000 in fraudulent PPP funds, a case Hoodline covered in its earlier report on the $200K PPP fraud plea.
Other cases stretch back further. Former Miami-Dade Police Officer Samuel Harris pleaded guilty in July 2023 to wire fraud after falsely claiming his business had 10 employees and over $859,000 in annual revenue to obtain $285,400 in combined PPP and EIDL funds, as reported by the Associated Press. Harris was later sentenced to four months in federal prison. Former Miami-Dade corrections officer Daniel Fleureme pleaded guilty in November 2024 to wire fraud for fraudulently obtaining a $150,000 EIDL loan by claiming $450,000 in gross revenue for a sole proprietorship while working full-time at the county jail, according to CBS News. Fleureme had faced up to 20 years in prison for the wire fraud charge.
Even earlier, in February 2022, Miami-Dade Police Department administrative officer Elisa Rivera pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud after submitting a false EIDL claim and helping others file fraudulent applications, despite suffering no loss of municipal salary during the pandemic while claiming $325,446 in private business revenue. The pattern reflects a broader regional sweep: federal authorities announced charges against 17 individuals across South Florida in October 2024 tied to more than $21 million in alleged PPP and EIDL fraud, a case Hoodline detailed in its report on the 17-defendant fraud sweep.
Bernard's plea shows the ongoing reach of that strike force effort, which has now produced convictions across the Miami-Dade Police Department, City of Miami Police Department, Miami-Dade Corrections, and now the Miami Gardens Police Department. With his agreement to give up his badge and certification permanently, Bernard becomes the latest South Florida officer whose career has ended over a pandemic-era loan application.
