Two former police officers of the Flint Police Department (FPD) pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan to conspiring to commit theft from an organization receiving federal funds, announced Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Stuart M. Goldberg of the Justice Department’s Tax Division.

According to documents filed with the court, Richard Besson, 53, of Davison, Michigan, served as an FPD officer from 1989 to 2011 and Jason Groulx, 44, of Flint, Michigan, served as an FPD officer from 1998 to 2018. From June 2011 to June 2013, Besson and Groulx conspired together and with others to steal traffic crash reports from the FPD in exchange for cash payments. Many of the stolen reports were marked “unapproved” and were not publicly available.

Sentencing is scheduled for July 31. Besson and Groulx face a statutory maximum sentence of five years in prison, as well as a period of supervised release, restitution, and monetary penalties.

Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Goldberg commended special agents of IRS Criminal Investigation, who conducted the investigation, and Tax Division Trial Attorneys Mark McDonald and William Guappone, who are prosecuting the case, and thanked the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Michigan for their assistance.

Additional information about the Tax Division and its enforcement efforts may be found on the division’s website.