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Dean Tran, 48, of Fitchburg, was indicted on 25 counts of wire fraud and three charges of filing false tax reports on Friday, Nov. 17, the US Attorney for Massachusetts said. He pleaded not guilty to all of the charges.
Tran served in the Massachusetts Senate from 2017-2021.
Investigators said Tran collected $30,120 in unemployment benefits after being voted out of office in January 2021 despite not being unemployed. An automotive company in New Hampshire had hired him as a consultant for a $50,000 fee, the prosecutor said.
He hid that fee and money he received from rental properties from the IRS to pay less in taxes, the prosecutor said.
“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 FBI Special Agent Jodi Cohen. “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."
Tran could spend decades in prison if convicted, according to federal sentencing guidelines.
Tran was charged earlier this year with two counts of using an official position to secure an unwarranted privilege after state investigators said he had his staff work on his campaigns while on state time and payroll, the state Attorney General announced in September.
A Senate Committee on Ethics report found that during his 2018 and 2020 re-election campaigns, Tran had his staff organize fundraisers, knock on doors, and craft campaign mailers during work hours at the MassGOP campaign field office in Fitchburg.
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