Ex-Massachusetts lawmaker convicted of scamming pandemic unemployment funds

BOSTON (AP) — Former Massachusetts state Sen. Dean Tran was convicted Wednesday of scheming to defraud the state Department of Unemployment Assistance and collecting income that he failed to report to the Internal Revenue Service.

Tran, 48, of Fitchburg, was convicted on 20 counts of wire fraud and three counts of filing false tax returns after a six-day trial. Sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 4.

Tran had been indicted by a federal grand jury in November, 2023.

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

After his term ended in 2021, Tran fraudulently received pandemic unemployment benefits while simultaneously employed as a paid consultant for a New Hampshire-based retailer of automotive parts, investigators said.

While working as a paid consultant for the Automotive Parts Company, Tran fraudulently collected $30,120 in pandemic unemployment benefits.

Tran also concealed $54,700 in consulting income that he received from the Automotive Parts Company from his 2021 federal income tax return, according to prosecutors.

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