Former MA Senator Arrested, Accused Of Unemployment Fraud

FITCHBURG, MA — Former Massachusetts State Senator Dean Tran, 48, of Fitchburg, was arrested Friday after being accused of fraudulently applying for pandemic unemployment benefits.

Tran, who is accused of scheming to defraud the Massachusetts Department of Unemployment Assistance and collecting income that he failed to report to the IRS, was indicted on 25 counts of wire fraud and three counts of filing false tax returns, officials said.

He will appear in federal court in Boston Friday afternoon.

Tran served as an elected member of the Massachusetts State Senate, representing Worcester and Middlesex from 2017 to January 2021.

After his State Senate term ended, Tran is accused of fraudulently applying for unemployment benefits after he had already accepted a job as a paid consultant for a New Hampshire-based automotive parts company, officials said.

Tran allegedly collected $30,120 in these benefits and also concealed over $50,000 in consulting income that he received from the automotive parts company on his 2021 federal income tax return, according to officials.

In addition, he is accused of concealing thousands of dollars in rental income from the IRS while collecting rent from tenants of a Fitchburg property from 2020 to 2022, officials 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," Jodi Cohen, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Boston Division, wrote in Friday's news release. "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."

In his own statement, Harry Chavis, Jr., Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigations in Boston, noted that "Elected officials are rightly held to a higher standard when they take an oath to serve."

"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," Chavis added. "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, officials said. 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.