Craig Urges Passage of Welfare Reform

One Year Since Auditor’s Report

Upton, MA …Yesterday at the State House Shawn Craig, Iraq War Veteran and candidate for State Representative, joined Representatives Shaunna O’Connell, Geoff Diehl, Jim Lyons, Marc Lombardo, and Leah Cole and Senator Bob Hedlund in urging the welfare reform conference committee to get their work done and release the bill from committee for a final vote.  This week marks the one-year anniversary of the State Auditor’s report outlining abuse within the Department of Transitional Assistance (welfare).

“As a U.S. Marine and Iraq War Veteran, integrity is one of the greatest leadership traits.  A promise is a promise.  And it is time to pass welfare reform as promised last year to the people of the Commonwealth,” said Craig.  “The majority party leadership voted for reforms in the wake of the audit report that were then sent off to die in conference committee.  Why?  Why would they vote for something they had no want or intention of seeing succeed?  It begs the taxpayers’ question. Perhaps it’s nothing more than a political shell game to allow them to tell voters in an election year that they supported reforms.  The taxpayers deserve better.”

“The people of the Commonwealth were promised a reform bill over 15 months ago.  It is time to pass welfare reform,” urged O’Connell.  “Time is running out in this session.  I don’t want to see this bill die in conference committee.”

House 3756, An Act to foster economic independence, has been stuck in conference committee since last November.  There are only 64 days left in the legislative session.

“There has been more than enough time to negotiate the differences between the House and Senate bills.  Let’s end the conference committee gridlock,” said Diehl.

Last year the Auditor’s report found: 1164 dead people collecting $2.4 million in benefits; $1 million in benefits went to people with fake Social Security numbers; DTA failed to verify Social Security numbers for people self-declaring; $15 million in questionable benefits; and DTA offices mishandled 30,000 blank EBT cards.

“As taxpayers, we all want our dollars to be employed both efficiently and effectively, and finding out that over 1,000 people who are deceased are receiving welfare benefits doesn’t cut it.  Nor does $15 million in suspicious transactions from electronic benefit cards of which $4.6 million in transactions occurred in distant states or territories including Hawaii, Florida, and Puerto Rico,” said Craig.  “As the next State Representative, I will not sit on the sidelines as bills like welfare reform linger in conference committee.  I will work to get them out of committee.”

Craig is a member of the Upton Finance Committee and is the liaison to the Mendon Upton Regional School District.  He is also the Vice-Chairman of the Mendon-Upton Multi-Board Task Force.  In addition, he is an active member of the VFW and Upton Men’s Club.

Professionally, Craig has 18 years of private sector experience with the majority spent within the financial services industry.  He worked for the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”) for 8.5 years where he investigated broker-dealers for compliance with federal securities laws and FINRA rules and regulations.  This included both routine as well as special investigations involving the review and discovery of money laundering, fraud, embezzlement, insider trading and unsuitable investments. One investigation of which he was the team lead resulted in the discovery of fraud and misrepresentation at a firm located in Braintree, MA.  Craig drafted a referral whereby the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission became engaged along with the FBI.  The firm’s owner was detained October 2, 2012 and sentenced in April 2013 to 17 years in federal prison plus 3 years supervised probation and $9 million in restitution.  Craig left FINRA in 2013 to start a consulting business focused on helping small broker-dealers.

Craig earned his B.A. from Roanoke College, where he double majored in International Relations and Business, and an M.S. in Finance from Suffolk University in Boston.