Fitchburg state tran state senator sentenced to fraud

In a prepared statement, Tran said that he was the victim of a “politically motivated witch” launched by the former American Democratic Prosecutor Runchael Rollins to interfere with his Congress campaign 2022 “and prevent him from looking for a future position.”

He accused federal agents of violating their rights and called the United States attorney general, Pam Bondi, to “investigate these people and shoot them.”

Leah B. Foley, a recently appointed Republican US prosecutor for Massachusetts by Trump, defended the prosecution of the Government of Tran.

“He chose to violate the public’s confidence once, but twice by defrauding the government of unemployment benefits and deliberately omit their taxable income,” said Foley in the press release after Tran was sentenced. “His fraud and their deception calculated erodes the public’s confidence in elected officials and diverted the money from those who really needed it.”

Tran is currently waiting for the federal trial in Related chargesas well as two pending cases in the State Court for the alleged theft of a violation of weapons and ethics.

In September, a federal jury found Tran guilty of 20 charges of electronic fraud and three charges of submitting false tax statements.

The prosecutors presented evidence that Tran was denied the traditional unemployment benefits after not winning re -election, then fraudulently raised $ 30,120 for unemployment benefits Pandemic while working as an consultant paid for an auto -speaking company with headquarters in New Hampshire. They claimed that Tran hid $ 54,700 in consulting income that he received from the company in his 2021 federal tax declaration; and that he Hid thousands of dollars in rental income that he received from the property in Fitchburg in his federal tax statements from 2020 to 2022.

“There was no fraud, theft or scheme of pandemic unemployment assistance,” Trap on Friday said.

Tran, father of four children, was born in Vietnam and emigrated to the United States with his family when he was 4 years old. After completing 12 years as a councilor of the city of Fitchburg, he became the first American Vietnamese chosen for the Massachusetts Senate when he won a 2017 special election in the District of Worcester and Middlesex based in Fitchburg. In 2022, he ran without success against the American representative Lori Trahan, a Westford Democrat.

His lawyer, Michael C. Walsh, argued that the Government did not suffer losses for the actions of Tran and urged the judge to sentence him to two years of probation, including five months of “confinement in the home.”

The prosecutors urged the judge to sentence Tran to two years in prison and argued in a memorandum of sentence that “the greed was in the center of the crimes of Tran and showed no remorse.”

“Tran robbed the unemployment benefits of a program for the most vulnerable members of our community, who, unlike Tran, suffered true economic difficulties during the Covid-19 Pandemia,” wrote the prosecutors of the United States Dustin Chao and John T. Mulcahy in a judicial presentation.

“Tran, as former elected official, knew better than anyone else the importance and purpose of such government assistance programs and exploited his unique knowledge and background for his own selfish motifs.”

Tran is waiting for the trial in a separate federal case presented in a federal court last year, June that accused him and his sister of obstruction of justice and making false statements as part of a related scheme to raise benefits of pandemic unemployment. A test date has not yet been established.

Tran is also

Continue defending two criminal cases in the State Court.

Is scheduled to be tried on March 10 in the Superior Court of Worcester for charges that he steal a weapon of a major constituent in 2019 and cheated researchers about what happened.

In a 2023 case presented by the Massachusetts Attorney General, Andrea Campbell, Tran was allegedly accused violate the law of state ethics By using members of his legislative personnel to campaign for him during his 2018 and 2020 re -election campaigns The judge denied the motion of Tran to dismiss that indication and appealed before the Supreme Judicial Court of the State, where the case is now pending.

You can contact Shelley Murphy in [email protected]. Follow her @Shelleymurph.