Ronald Jerome Boyd, chief of police at the Port of Los Angeles, was charged Thursday with 16 criminal counts -- including tax evasion, corruption and fraud. File Photo by iofoto/Shutterstock

LOS ANGELES, April 30 (UPI) -- The man in charge of policing one of the busiest ports in the world was formally charged on Thursday with multiple criminal counts, including corruption and tax evasion.

Ronald Jerome Boyd, chief of Los Angeles port police since January, was indicted by a grand jury on 16 counts. They include lying to FBI agents, failing to file federal tax returns, corruption and tax evasion, the Orange County Register reported.


Part of the indictment stems from the development of a social network app for the Port of Los Angeles, which Boyd allegedly planned to sell to law enforcement agencies. Boyd, 57, would have benefited financially from that venture, the report said.

Boyd, whose official title is chief of public safety and emergency management, was allegedly involved in "a scheme to defraud the citizens of the city of Los Angeles and the Harbor Department for the city of Los Angeles of their right to the honest services of defendant Boyd by means of bribery and kickbacks, materially false and fraudulent pretenses and representations, and the concealment of material facts," the indictment said.

According to the charges, Boyd had entered into a revenue-sharing agreement with a company to develop the app, called Portwatch -- designed to provide information to the public and allowed tipsters to report crimes at the port. The agreement was supposedly contingent on Boyd securing a contract for the unnamed app developer.

"Under the terms of this agreement, defendant Boyd would receive approximately 13.33 percent of all gross revenues generated by the sale of the [smartphone] application throughout the United States," the indictment said.

Investigators say Boyd disclosed confidential information to the company developing the app, and subsequently lied to FBI agents when asked if he had a financial interest in the app's development.

Boyd's security company, At Close Range, also failed to file a federal tax return between 2008 and 2011 -- and Boyd's personal returns between 2007 and 2011 failed to disclose additional income, the charging document says.

The Port of Los Angeles, the largest container port in the United States, did not immediately respond to the charges.

Boyd is expected to surrender to authorities in the coming days, the Wall Street Journal reported.

If convicted on all 16 counts, Boyd faces a prison term of up to 124 years, the Journal reported.