BOSTON – A Boston federal court convicted a former Massachusetts State Senator on charges of wire fraud and filing false tax returns this week.
A six-day trial found former Massachusetts Senator Dean Tran guilty of 20 counts of wire fraud and three counts of filing false tax returns. Prosecutors alleged Tran engaged in a scheme to defraud the Massachusetts Department of Unemployment Assistance and collecting income that he failed to report to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
Tran served in the state senate from 2017 to 2021, representing a Worcester and Middlesex Counties district that included Fitchburg.
According to federal prosecutors, after Tran’s term ended in 2021, Tran received $30,120 in pandemic unemployment benefits while consulting for a New Hampshire auto parts company. Tran also concealed from the IRS $54,700 in consulting income in 2021 and rent received from tenants he rented a property in Fitchburg to from 2020 to 2022.
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.
The judge scheduled sentencing for Dec. 4.
