A member of the Massachusetts legislature was arrested Wednesday on charges of pandemic fraud, with federal prosecutors saying he stole more than $700,000 in unemployment and small business money and used it to buy real estate and fund his campaign.
The fraud the feds allege took place while Francisco Paulino, 46, was a candidate for the state House of Representatives. He won the election in 2021.
Prosecutors also got an indictment this week against the mayor of Lawrence, Massachusetts, in yet another pandemic fraud case that accused him of siphoning pandemic loan money to his political campaign.
Both men are Democrats.
In the case of Mr. Paulino, prosecutors say he inflated business profits to win the small-business loans. And he applied for unemployment benefits in the name of a 77-year-old relative, then had the money sent to his own bank account.
When state authorities later asked for documents to substantiate the claim, prosecutors said Mr. Paulino fabricated a work history and IRS forms to fool the probe.
Mr. Paulino walked away with nearly $40,000, which the indictment says he spent on real estate expenses and “transfers to [his] campaign account.”
Prosecutors also charged him with obtaining emergency pandemic loans for a business he started and a business run by a client of his. Both loans were bogus, the indictment says.
No lawyer was listed in court files Wednesday afternoon. The Washington Times has reached out to his state political office.
The charges were announced a day after a grand jury indicted Brian A. DePena, the mayor of Lawrence.
He is accused of collecting $1.5 million in fraudulent pandemic loan money and using some of it for his campaign account.
He was a city councilor and candidate for mayor at the time the alleged fraud began. He won the mayor’s office in November 2021.
Prosecutors said he also used pandemic money to pay his tax debts.
Mr. DePena, 61, was previously charged by criminal complaint earlier this month.
They are the latest in a string of politicians accused of taking advantage of federal generosity during the COVID crisis.
U.S. Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, Florida Democrat, resigned her seat in April rather than face possible expulsion over her use of pandemic funds.
The House ethics committee, after a lengthy investigation, concluded that she kept $5 million in pandemic overpayments to her family health services firm and used much of that to fund her first political campaign to win her House seat.
In May, prosecutors charged Gerard Moorer, a longtime aide to Rep. Danny Davis, another Democrat, with pandemic fraud.
They say he was collecting COVID unemployment money even while he was working for Congress.
Contact the author
Please read our comment policy before commenting.