The former president of the State Police Association of Massachusetts was sentenced to prison Wednesday on a slew of criminal charges in connection with kickback schemes and bribes that he orchestrated with the help of a union lobbyist.
Dana A. Pullman, 60, of Worcester, was sentenced in federal court in Boston to 30 months behind bars for racketeering, fraud, obstruction of justice, and tax crimes, according to United States Attorney Rachael S. Rollins. Anne M. Lynch, 71, of Hull, was got two years in prison.
In November 2022, Pullman and Lynch were convicted by a federal jury of one count of racketeering conspiracy, one count of honest services wire fraud, three counts of wire fraud, one count of obstruction of justice, and one count of conspiracy to defraud the Internal Revenue Service. Pullman was also convicted of two additional counts of wire fraud and two counts of aiding and assisting the filing of a false tax return. Lynch was convicted of an additional count of obstruction of justice and four counts of aiding and assisting in the filing of a false tax return.
From at least 2012 until Pullman resigned as the head of SPAM in September 2018, Lynch turned SPAM into a racketeering enterprise, using Pullman’s position and power to defraud SPAM members, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and vendors looking to do business with Massachusetts State Police, according to federal investigators.
Among other things, Pullman and Lynch defrauded SPAM members and the Commonwealth of their right to honest services from Pullman when Lynch paid Pullman a $20,000 kickback in connection with a settlement agreement between SPAM and the Commonwealth. Pullman and Lynch also defrauded two different companies that sought to do business with the MSP by hiding from the vendors the fact that Lynch was paying Pullman to direct vendors to use Lynch’s services.
Pullman and Lynch hid the payments from Lynch and her lobbying firm to Pullman in a manner designed to avoid reporting and paying taxes on that income to the IRS. Pullman and Lynch also attempted to obstruct the grand jury’s investigation of this matter by manipulating subpoenaed records, and Lynch attempted to obstruct the grand jury’s investigation by lying to investigators.
In a statement, Rollins said Pullman and Lynch used SPAM as a “criminal enterprise for their own personal financial benefit.”
“Pullman failed his department, his sworn oath, and taxpayers when he and lobbyist Anne Lynch joined forces to line their pockets with thousands of dollars in bribes and kickbacks,” Joseph Bonavolonta, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, added.
Additionally, Pullman embezzled and misused SPAM funds for personal use by using a debit card tied to a SPAM bank account to pay for thousands of dollars of meals and travel for an individual with whom Pullman was having a romantic relationship.
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