Third Congressional District

Former 3rd Congressional District candidate convicted of violating federal campaign finance laws

October 13, 2023 by pkzadmin

BOSTON — An attorney and former Tyngsboro hotelier was convicted by a federal jury on Friday of violating federal campaign finance laws during his run as a 3rd Congressional District candidate in the 2018 election.

Abhijit “Beej” Das, 50, of North Andover, was found guilty of charges associated with soliciting illegal campaign contributions and then using the funds to further his candidacy and his business ventures, including the former Stonehedge Hotel and Spa in Tyngsboro, according to the office of Acting U.S. Attorney Joshua Levy.

“Mr. Das illegally solicited and accepted donations, used the money for a different purpose and hid his actions,” Levy said in a press release about Das’ conviction. “He lied to the government and to the voters. He abused the campaign finance process and thought he could get away with it.”

Das ran in the 2018 Democratic primary for the 3rd Congressional District, now represented by U.S. Rep. Lori Trahan. In December 2017, a few months after announcing his candidacy, Das devised a plan to inflate lagging fundraising numbers by soliciting personal loans from friends and associates exceeding the Federal Election Commission’s $2,700 legal limit.

The indictment states the total amount of funds on deposit in the campaign account was approximately $10,000 at that time, which was significantly behind the $450,000 fundraising goal.

Das contacted a contributor asking for a friend to support his campaign to reach the fundraising goal by the end of the year and indicated that reaching that total might need “some engineering.” The indictment states that during a conference call, Das claimed he had confirmed the legality of the personal loan to the campaign with an attorney. Prosecutors said Das, however, had never retained the services of an election law attorney during the campaign, and was acting as his own counsel.

Das advised a member of his campaign that he would “aggregate” the loans into “one batch” and execute a main transfer into the campaign account.

Das additionally caused three people to contribute approximately $125,000 to his campaign and structured the contributions as personal loans to a family member to circumvent FEC reporting requirement and contribution limits. Prosecutors said Das claimed the funds from the contributions were his own personal funds and engaged in illegal conduit contributions to his campaign.

According to the indictment, between the end of January 2018 and May 2018, Das withdrew approximately $314,500 from his campaign account and used at least $267,000 to pay debts for his hotel business relating to vendors, as well as the hotel’s 108-foot yacht, “Troca One,” and real estate taxes unrelated to his congressional campaign.

The indictment states Das operated a “financially struggling hotel business” between August 2014 and December 2019, which included the Stonehedge Hotel and Spa and the Daniel Hotel in Brunswick, Maine. Das owned and operated these properties through a series of entities, including Troca Hotels Management LLC, Boston East Tyngsboro Holding LLC, Troca Yachts Management LLC, and Troca Holdings LLC.

To conceal the fact that he was paying hotel business expenses with misappropriated campaign funds, the indictment states, Das instructed bank tellers to report the withdrawals as separate withdrawal and deposit transactions, rather than direct transfers.

Prosecutors said Das aided and abetted in the submission of false information in quarterly reports to the FEC by overstating the amount of cash-on-hand the “Das for Congress” campaign had in its bank account. In June 2018, for example, Das reported that his campaign’s total amount of cash-on-hand was approximately $440,000, when the actual amount was less than $5,000.

The jury convicted Das of accepting excessive campaign contributions, conduit contributions, conversion of campaign funds, and two counts of making a false statement. Levy’s office said each charge includes a sentence of up to five years in prison, three years of supervised release, and fine of $250,000, or twice the gross gain or loss, whichever is greater.

Das is scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 17. His attorney, Michael Kendall, was not immediately available for comment.

In June 2023, Das was separately indicted by a federal grand jury on 10 counts of wire fraud, alleging he diverted more than $5 million in escrow funds from his clients’ accounts for personal expenses, including the purchase of a $2.7 million home in Boca Raton, Florida.

According to Levy’s office, that case is pending in court. Das has been on release awaiting trial. His attorney related to those charges, Glenn MacKinlay, declined to comment.

Follow Aaron Curtis on X, formerly known as Twitter, @aselahcurtis

Former state Sen. Dean Tran faces ethics charges

September 30, 2023 by pkzadmin

BOSTON — The former Fitchburg state senator and Republican 3rd Congressional District candidate Dean Tran was indicted by a Suffolk County grand jury on charges of violating state ethics laws.

Attorney General Andrea Campbell’s office announced on Friday that Tran, 47, was charged with two counts of use of an official position to secure unwarranted privilege when he used his Senate staff to campaign for him on state time and payroll.

The AG’s Office said the violations occurred during Tran’s 2018 and 2020 reelection campaigns. The alleged campaign activities included organizing fundraisers, knocking on doors, and putting together campaign mailers. The alleged activities occurred during official work hours at the MassGOP campaign regional field office in Fitchburg.

The matter was referred to the AG’s Office by the Office of Campaign and Political Finance following a report from the Senate Committee on Ethics in 2020.

Within the 15-page report it states Senate President Karen Spilka’s office first received anonymous letters in October 2019, addressed to the Ethics Commission, alleging the misdeeds.

One letter stated staffers were allegedly told by Tran they must campaign for him and that doing so was part of the job. Another letter stated staffers “are always asked to do all fundraising, always asked to put constituents on invite fundraiser list,” according to the report.

Following the conclusion of a preliminary investigation in early January 2020, the report states Tran was approached about the allegations, which he denied, while asserting his staff was “totally autonomous.” Tran said, according to the report, that staff members may have attended campaign events, but they never touched any campaign fundraising.

A formal investigation was opened in late January 2020. The investigation included interviews with Tran staffers, review of text messages and other documents supplied by witnesses, email records for Tran and his staff, and personnel records. The report states the content of the investigation supported the allegations contained in the letters received in October 2019.

In March 2020, the report states the Senate Committee on Ethics met with Tran, who asserted all personnel and office management issues were under “the purview” of a former senior staffer. Tran said all his employees performed their responsibilities appropriately, based on their job descriptions.

Tran told The Sun on Saturday that he was made aware of the indictment late Friday night when a friend contacted him after reading about the allegations on social media.

In a statement to The Sun, Tran said, “I served in the Senate with integrity and honesty and worked hard to serve the people in my district. I successfully completed the ethics training and I had my chief of staff conferred with the Ethics Commission on their responsibilities and actions. As a Republican and the first Vietnamese and Asian born American elected to the Senate, I was very aware to adhere to every rule and protocol set by the senate for senators and their offices. At no point in time during my service did I perform unethically.”

Tran came up short in his reelection bid against Democrat John Cronin in 2020. Two years later, Tran was again unsuccessful when he challenged U.S. Rep. Lori Trahan for the 3rd Congressional District.

In the midst of his congressional campaign, Tran was indicted by a Worcester County grand jury in connection with the alleged theft of a firearm from an elderly constituent.

The office of then-Attorney General Maura Healey stated at the time that while visiting an elderly constituent in June 2019, Tran allegedly used his position as a state senator to intimidate the constituent into parting with her dead husband’s firearms.

Tran pleaded not guilty and proceeded to file a federal lawsuit and injunction claiming Healey was motivated by partisan politics when she filed the charges against him. His lawsuit was later dismissed.

For the latest indictment, Tran will be arraigned in Suffolk County Superior Court at a later date.

Follow Aaron Curtis on X, formerly known as Twitter, @aselahcurtis

Former state Sen. Dean Tran faces ethics charges

September 30, 2023 by pkzadmin

BOSTON — The former Fitchburg state senator and Republican 3rd Congressional District candidate Dean Tran was indicted by a Suffolk County grand jury on charges of violating state ethics laws.

The matter was referred to the AG’s Office by the Office of Campaign and Political Finance following a report from the Senate Committee on Ethics in 2020.

Within the 15-page report it states Senate President Karen Spilka’s office first received anonymous letters in October 2019, addressed to the Ethics Commission, alleging the misdeeds.

Tran told The Sun on Saturday that he was made aware of the indictment late Friday night when a friend contacted him after reading about the allegations on social media.

In the midst of his congressional campaign, Tran was indicted by a Worcester County grand jury in connection with the alleged theft of a firearm from an elderly constituent.

For the latest indictment, Tran will be arraigned in Suffolk County Superior Court at a later date.

Follow Aaron Curtis on X, formerly known as Twitter, @aselahcurtis

Former state Sen. Dean Tran faces ethics charges

September 30, 2023 by pkzadmin

BOSTON — The former Fitchburg state senator and Republican 3rd Congressional District candidate Dean Tran was indicted by a Suffolk County grand jury on charges of violating state ethics laws.

The matter was referred to the AG’s Office by the Office of Campaign and Political Finance following a report from the Senate Committee on Ethics in 2020.

Within the 15-page report it states Senate President Karen Spilka’s office first received anonymous letters in October 2019, addressed to the Ethics Commission, alleging the misdeeds.

Tran told The Sun on Saturday that he was made aware of the indictment late Friday night when a friend contacted him after reading about the allegations on social media.

In the midst of his congressional campaign, Tran was indicted by a Worcester County grand jury in connection with the alleged theft of a firearm from an elderly constituent.

For the latest indictment, Tran will be arraigned in Suffolk County Superior Court at a later date.

Follow Aaron Curtis on X, formerly known as Twitter, @aselahcurtis

Lori Trahan warns of widespread impacts of impending government shutdown

September 29, 2023 by pkzadmin

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Barring a miracle in the House of Representatives with the clock ticking down to the Oct. 1 deadline, a shutdown of the federal government is all but certain, and the impacts are sure to be felt by many.

Massachusetts 3rd Congressional District Rep. Lori Trahan said in a phone call Friday morning that the House appeared very unlikely to reach a deal before the deadline at 12:01 a.m. Sunday. At that point, federal government funding and services across many sectors will be cut off.

“I went through the longest shutdown in our nation’s history in 2019 as I was being sworn in,” said Trahan, a Democrat. “It got really bad for thousands of families. Federal employees were all worried about their families and whether they could pay their bills.”

That government shutdown lasted 35 days, during which hundreds of thousands of federal workers were furloughed or required to work without knowing when they would be paid next, but it was only a partial shutdown. When the looming deadline passes, we will be in a full government shutdown, which Trahan said will be much worse for more people.

“In Massachusetts we have nearly 15,000 active duty and reserve servicemembers who will be working without pay — 1.2 million Massachusetts residents will have their food assistance jeopardized,” said Trahan.

Food assistance programs like SNAP and WIC will be cut off, Trahan said, which will affect families across the district from Lowell to Fitchburg. On top of that, the Small Business Administration will halt small business loans for the duration of the shutdown.

The reasoning behind the impending shutdown is complicated, but it stems largely from two deals that were struck earlier this year, both by Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. The first deal was one McCarthy made with a faction of far-right Republicans in the House to secure the votes to become speaker in the first place in January after 15 votes had to be taken. The deal included a commitment to reduce government spending in certain areas opposed by the far-right caucus, as well as a provision that would allow any one member of the House to call a vote to remove and replace McCarthy as speaker.

The second deal took place in the spring, and it was with President Joe Biden in an effort to avoid the nation’s first-ever debt default. This deal left the far-right caucus wanting deeper budget cuts, for which they are exerting political pressure on McCarthy to go back on his deal with Biden by threatening his speakership.

“The remarkable thing about this week is that we could have taken up the continuing resolution. Senate Republicans and Democrats and the president were all aligned on this bipartisan continuing resolution to keep the government open and funding it to give us time to pass these appropriations bills,” said Trahan. “House Republicans are on an island right now, passing appropriations bills that have no chance of passing the Senate.”

If McCarthy brought forward the bipartisan Senate resolution, Trahan said it would have bipartisan support in the House, but then McCarthy would lose his position as speaker.

“It all rests on whether he cares more about his speakership, or the country,” said Trahan.

With the relative frequency of government shutdowns in recent years, Trahan said that they hurt the ability of communities across the country like Lowell and Fitchburg to invest in their own revitalization.

“In a time when we are making significant investments in these communities, I make no apologies about bringing back federal funds from the infrastructure bill, and the CHIPS and Science Act, but this just hurts us,” said Trahan. “When you shut down every five years, like Republicans have done since 2013, you erode the ability to attract private investment.”

For those in her district who may be struggling and unable to get the assistance and services they normally receive during the shutdown, Trahan urged them to call her offices at 978-459-0101.

The odds of a deal being reached in time fell even further Friday afternoon after 21 House Republicans joined all House Democrats in rejecting a proposal by McCarthy that included steep spending cuts of nearly 30% to many agencies and severe border security provisions. Democrats rejected the steep cuts as too extreme, while the far-right caucus called them insufficient.

A clearly agitated McCarthy left the House chamber. “It’s not the end yet; I’ve got other ideas,” he told reporters.

Republican leaders planned to convene behind closed doors late Friday to assess next steps.

Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.

Chelmsford veteran to launch advocacy group for Afghan refugees, provide ‘better outcomes’ for families

August 30, 2023 by pkzadmin

This month marks two years since the evacuation at Kabul, in which more than 120,000 Afghans fled the country after the Taliban regained control of the city. Close to 100,000 now call the United States home, but hardships followed many of them across the border.“I think there is a reasonable amount of empathy to Afghan veterans,” said John Moses, a Chelmsford resident and veteran who served in Afghanistan. “And if they don’t have empathy, I make sure I remind them that they told me they had empathy.”Moses, also a Chelmsford School Committee member, rallied local volunteers to form a neighborhood support team, which assists specific families in their transition to a new life in their community — in essence, it’s a “local support arm” of the federal immigration process, Moses said.Even with designated help, Moses said there are still lapses in information for resources, funding and advocacy for refugees whose families remained overseas. There is only so much volunteers could do.With that in mind, Moses is founding the Massachusetts Afghan Alliance, a “middleman” organization that will work between the neighborhood support teams and resettlement agencies to ensure “better outcomes for Afghan families,” he said. They intend to serve people across the 3rd Congressional District, including Chelmsford, Lowell, Townsend, Westford, Haverhill, Ashburnham and elsewhere.“I kept finding all these different volunteer groups and they’re like, ‘We don’t know what to do. We don’t get information from resettlement agencies. We’re out of money,’” Moses said. “What I want to do is build that middle ground between that and then encourage and improve relationships and resources on the bottom and improve gaps that the resettlement agencies have.”The International Institute of New England, a nonprofit immigrant assistance agency, will welcome an estimated 120 refugees between October 2022 and September 2023, Lowell Managing Director Caroline Rowe <a href="https://www.lowellsun.com/2023/05/14/chelmsford-high-student-afghan-refugee-awaits-reunification-with-family-after-two-years-apart/">told</a> The Sun in May. The organization resettled 236 Afghans last year, and Moses said about 3,000 Afghans refugees reside in Massachusetts.Specific numbers, however, are hard to come by — Moses said there’s “no visibility” into where and how many Afghans there are in the area, which means they’re often unable to offer support. Through Mass. Afghan Alliance, Moses hopes to track more data around local Afghan populations.Moses mentioned Zubair Sadat, a Chelmsford High School student who <a href="https://www.lowellsun.com/2023/05/14/chelmsford-high-student-afghan-refugee-awaits-reunification-with-family-after-two-years-apart/">fled</a> from Kabul in 2021 and is still waiting for his family to join him. Like Zubair, an unaccompanied minor, often only one or two refugees will come to the U.S. together, leaving behind large families that the resettlement agencies don't necessarily know about. That puts a burden on local advocates to help in reunification cases, as well as find appropriate accommodations.“What I’m learning is that we don’t know how many Afghans there are in this district at all,” Moses said. “We don’t know how many reunification cases there are, and that has a really long-term downside … You have to prepare for all these people you don’t know are coming and the federal government didn’t tell you.”It’s also about resiliency for Afghan refugees, Moses said, and he plans to provide mental health support for those coming to Massachusetts.MAA is supported by Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, described as a public policy think tank that provides Moses access to a fundraising network, research assistants and access to other fellows across the country.U.S. Rep. Lori Trahan, D-Lowell, wrote Moses a letter of support to the Hoover Institution before he was accepted, he said.Jorge Morales-Lopez, constituent services advisor for Trahan’s office, will serve as a congressional liaison for MAA. Since the evacuation two summers ago, Morales-Lopez wrote in an email that the organization is making “a coordinated effort” to ensure Afghans secure the safety they need.“As any Afghan refugee will tell you, the journey doesn’t end when they finally board the plane to the United States,” Morales-Lopez wrote. “There is a significant need for local, state, federal, nonprofit, and faith-based services to support refugees and their families when they arrive here in the Commonwealth, which is why I’m thankful John and the team at Massachusetts Afghan Alliance is prioritizing wrap-around support for every step of this long, difficult process.”Terry Symula, of Harvard, is currently assisting two large families out of a formerly vacant town building. Working with a team of volunteers, Symula — now an adviser for MAA — drives family members to appointments, helps with paying bills and advocates for their needs, most recently in court. They call her “grandmother.”Behishta, 17, is the oldest sister in her family of nine — six girls, one boy — who live on the home’s second floor. She recently obtained her driving permit and attends English learning classes three times a week on top of school. Behishta is entering her senior year, and after graduation, she plans on joining Job Corps and later becoming a journalist.Finding permanent residence was a challenge. Behishta and her family have lived in Germany, Philadelphia, Texas and Worcester over the last two years, but will stay in Harvard at least until the end of this upcoming school year, in June, when their lease is up.Though her sister, Shayesta, 16, calls Harvard “jungle city,” Behishta said she feels a sense of community there. In Afghanistan, young women are not entitled to an education, but here, Behishta said she has hope for her future.“I’m so lucky,” she said. “We don’t have this good chance in Afghanistan … They did decide who you want to marry and what age you want to marry, with who, and there’s a lot of people who are married at age 12, 15, 14, which is sad. And my mom, she told me, ‘You can decide anyone you like, you can decide,’ and that made me so happy.”Still, the reality of life in Afghanistan hangs above their heads. Their uncle worked with Americans as a contracted employee, but since the Taliban took control, he’s been in hiding.“He has a lot of opportunities to come here, and there’s no way to come because the Taliban don’t like him go,” Shayesta said of her uncle. “The airport is locked. There’s no way to go there.”Resources for incoming refugees exist in silos, Symula said, so getting support is up to a number of volunteers making lots of phone calls. MAA could help with that, she said.“It’s hard to get all the services that they’re entitled to,” Symula said. “You call MassHealth, it’s ‘Push one for Spanish.’ There’s no way to get to somebody that can help you by getting a translator … Sometimes you’re educating the people on the phone about the people that you’re supporting, because they’re not aware.”Though Symula’s work is admirable, Moses said she is a special case. Many families are unable to receive that level of care and funding.“We want to find better solutions,” Moses said. “It shouldn’t take an extraordinary act from a town and some people in a town.”

Third Congressional District

Footer