Former Massachusetts State Senator Arrested for COVID Fraud (Press Release, November 17, 2023)

Summary

A press release of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Massachusetts, dated Friday, November 17, 2023, announcing the arrest of former Massachusetts State Senator Dean Tran on a 28-count federal indictment charging 25 counts of wire fraud and three counts of filing false tax returns. According to the indictment, after the State Senate term ended in 2021, Tran fraudulently applied for pandemic unemployment benefits after already accepting employment as a paid consultant for an automotive parts company, collecting $30,120. It is further alleged that Tran concealed over $50,000 in consulting income on a 2021 federal income tax return, as well as rental income. Acting U.S. Attorney Joshua S. Levy made the announcement with the FBI, DOL-OIG and IRS-CI.

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PRESS RELEASE



Former Massachusetts State
Senator Arrested for COVID Fraud
Friday, November 17, 2023

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, District of Massachusetts

Defendant charged in 28-count federal indictment
BOSTON – Former Massachusetts State Senator Dean Tran was arrested today and
charged in federal court in Boston with allegedly scheming to defraud the
Massachusetts Department of Unemployment Assistance and collecting income that he
failed to report to the IRS.

Tran, 48, of Fitchburg, was indicted on 25 counts of wire fraud and three counts of filing
false tax returns. Tran was arrested this morning and will appear in federal court in
Boston at 1:30 p.m. today.

According to the indictment, Tran served as an elected member of the Massachusetts
State Senate, representing Worcester and Middlesex from 2017 to January 2021. It is
alleged that after his State Senate term ended in 2021, Tran fraudulently applied for
pandemic unemployment benefits after he had already accepted employment as a paid
consultant for a New Hampshire-based automotive parts company. While working as
the paid consultant, it is alleged that Tran fraudulently collected $30,120 in pandemic
unemployment benefits.

It is further alleged that Tran concealed over $50,000 in consulting income that he
received from the automotive parts company on his 2021 federal income tax
return. This was in addition to thousands of dollars in rental income that Tran allegedly
concealed from the IRS while collecting rent from tenants of a Fitchburg rental property
from 2020 to 2022.

“The indictment returned by the grand jury alleges that Former State
Senator Tran exploited pandemic unemployment benefits – diverting
critical resources intended for deserving individuals genuinely in
need,” said Acting United States Attorney Joshua S. Levy. “Our office
and our law enforcement partners are committed to safeguarding the
integrity of public assistance programs and holding accountable those
who exploit them – no matter who they are – particularly during times
of widespread hardship.”
“Dean Tran was once elected to serve taxpayers, but today we arrested him for allegedly
cheating them out of tens of thousands of dollars in fraudulent unemployment benefits
that were meant to be a lifeline for those struggling for survival as a result of the
pandemic,” said Jodi Cohen, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Boston Division. “This
former state senator allegedly made the conscious decision to repeatedly lie about his
employment status and underreport his rental property income so he could get a tax
break. The FBI and our partners are working hard every day to shut down such fraud
schemes and protect the public from being fleeced.”

“An important part of the mission of the Office of Inspector General is to investigate
allegations of fraud involving the Department of Labor’s unemployment insurance
programs. With the passage of the CARES Act and creation of the Pandemic
Unemployment Assistance program, we focused our efforts on these types of
allegations. We will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to investigate
fraud that has a negative effect on the American workforce,” said Special Agent-in-
Charge Jonathan Mellone, U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Inspector General.

“Elected officials are rightly held to a higher standard when they take an oath to serve,”
said Harry Chavis, Jr., Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal
Investigations in Boston. “Instead of honoring his commitment to the public trust, Tran
allegedly defrauded the citizens that elected him by failing to pay tax on his income and
fleecing a public-assistance program at a time when his constituents needed this help
the most, due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Rooting out public corruption remains one of
IRS CI’s highest priorities.”

The charge of wire fraud provides for a sentence of up to 20 years in prison, three years
of supervised release and a fine of $250,000. The charge of filing false tax returns
provides for a sentence of up to three years in prison, one year of supervised release
and a fine of $100,000. Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based
upon the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

Acting U.S. Attorney Levy, FBI SAC Cohen, DOL-OIG SAC Mellone and IRS-CI SAC Chavis
made the announcement today. Assistant U.S. Attorneys John T. Mulcahy and Dustin
Chao of the Criminal Division are prosecuting the case.
On May 17, 2021, the Attorney General established the COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement
Task Force to marshal the resources of the Department of Justice in partnership with
agencies across government to enhance efforts to combat and prevent pandemic-
related fraud. The Task Force bolsters efforts to investigate and prosecute the most
culpable domestic and international criminal actors and assists agencies tasked with
administering relief programs to prevent fraud by augmenting and incorporating
existing coordination mechanisms, identifying resources and techniques to uncover
fraudulent actors and their schemes, and sharing and harnessing information and
insights gained from prior enforcement efforts. For more information on the
department’s response to the pandemic, please
visit https://www.justice.gov/coronavirus and https://www.justice.gov/coronavirus/comb
atingfraud.

Anyone with information about allegations of attempted fraud involving COVID-19 can
report it by calling the Department of Justice’s National Center for Disaster Fraud
(NCDF) Hotline via the NCDF Web Complaint Form.

The details contained in the charging documents are allegations. The defendant is
presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court
of law.

Updated November 17, 2023

Topics
CORONAVIRUS

FINANCIAL FRAUD

TAX
Component
USAO - Massachusetts


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