A sergeant on the UMass Boston police force was arrested Tuesday morning on charges he participated in a New York City bribery and kickback scheme involving home health care for the elderly and a security firm he set up, allegedly starting before he retired from the New York Police Department and moved up here.
Edouardo St. Fort, 47, now faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted on a charges of federal-program bribery, conspiracy to commit offenses against the United States and violation of the Travel Act, according to his arrest warrant, unsealed in Boston federal court today, and federal prosecutors in Brooklyn.
A US magistrate judge at the Moakley Courthouse released him this afternoon on $500,000 unsecured bail, pending his being sent to Brooklyn, with conditions that included surrendering his three firearms.
St. Fort began working for the UMass police department in 2024, after the state Municipal Police Training Committee voted that June to waive the requirement he graduate from a police academy because of his experience with the NYPD, according to committee and UMass records.
In December, 2024, he bought a four-bedroom house in Taunton for $855,000, according to Bristol County North Registry of Deeds records.
According to amNY, the scheme focused on a New York non-profit group that saw its home-healthcare services dramatically expand in 2022 when it began providing services for the large number of migrants being shipped to New York from Texas.
The indictment against St. Fort and three other men alleges that two leaders of the non-profit agreed to funnel money to St. Fort’s security company, Fort NYC, in exchange for kickbacks.
Associated Press reports St. Fort’s company received a $3 million contract from the city’s Department of Homeless Services after he retired from NYPD in 2023.
