The chief of police for the Port of Los Angeles has been indicted on corruption charges, federal prosecutors said Thursday.
The corruption charges in the indictment relate to a scheme in which the chief, Ronald Jerome Boyd, 57, of Torrance, stood to financially benefit from the development of a social networking program that would become the official smartphone app for the Port and would then be marketed to other law enforcement agencies, the indictment alleges.
Boyd was named in January as chief of public safety and emergency management at the port.
He was charged in a 16-count indictment returned by a grand jury.
The indictment accuses Boyd of corruption, lying to FBI agents, failing to file federal corporate tax returns for a private security company he created, and tax evasion.
At the center of the case are four "honest services" wire fraud charges that accuse Boyd of executing "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 corruption scheme centers on a program called Portwatch, which was developed to provide information to the public and to allow citizens to report criminal activity at the port.
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In 2011, Boyd and two business partners formed BDB Digital Communications, a company that entered into a revenue-sharing agreement with the unnamed company developing Portwatch.
The parties involved with BDB intended to generate revenues by marketing and selling a similar app — called MetroWatch — to other government agencies.
Boyd is being put on administrative leave until further notice, Gene Seroka, the executive director of the Port of Los Angeles said in a statement.
"The City and Port of Los Angeles will fully cooperate in the investigation of this matter," he said in the statement.
