Former state Sen. Dean Tran convicted of unemployment fraud

Crime

Tran was arrested last year and accused of fraudulently collecting more than $30,000 in pandemic unemployment benefits.

Former Massachusetts state Sen. Dean Tran was convicted Wednesday of 23 charges related to fraudulently applying for pandemic unemployment assistance and lying on tax returns, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced. 

Tran, a Fitchburg Republican, served as a state senator from late 2017 until early 2021. He was arrested in November after being indicted on 25 counts of wire fraud and three counts of filing false tax returns. 

The U.S. Attorney’s Office announced Tran’s conviction Wednesday evening, saying that an official release with more details would follow. That release had not been posted as of Thursday morning.

Prosecutors alleged that, after his term ended in 2021, Tran fraudulently applied for pandemic unemployment benefits after he had already been hired as a paid consultant for a New Hampshire-based car parts company. They said he fraudulently collected $30,120 in unemployment benefits while working as the paid consultant. 

Officials also alleged Tran hid more than $50,000 in consulting income that he received from the automotive parts company on his 2021 tax return. On top of that, they said Tran collected thousands of dollars in rent from tenants at a Fitchburg property from 2020 to 2022 that he also hid from the IRS. 

“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,” Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Boston Division Jodi Cohen said last year when Tran was arrested. “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.”

His trial began in Boston on Sept. 3, The Boston Globe reported. Tran told the paper that he denied all charges and accused the U.S. Attorney’s Office and federal investigators of being politically biased against him because he is a Republican. 

This past June, Tran was indicted in a separate case involving an alleged attempt to “cover up a sham job offer” from the sister’s company. As part of their investigation into the unemployment benefits case, authorities looked into a purported job offer from Tran’s sister, Tuyet Martin of Pelham, New Hampshire.

Prosecutors alleged that Tran and Martin created a letter offering Tran a position at Martin’s Asian foods company, Alecon Enterprises, Inc. Tran allegedly signed Martin’s name and backdated the letter by multiple months before submitting it as part of his appeal after he was denied benefits. They say Martin concealed and attempted to delete emails between her and Tran regarding the letter, and that Martin provided false testimony before a federal grand jury in July 2023.