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MassGOP to pay $36K after allegations of illegal donations
One of the most significant contributions came from the campaign of a former lawmaker now serving prison time.
The Massachusetts Republican Party faced allegations of taking tens of thousands of dollars in unlawful donations—including from the campaign of a congressional candidate who is now serving prison time—and has now agreed to pay the state more than $36,000 in a settlement agreement.
The donations in question were made to the state party in 2022, when it was operating under previous leadership. The state Office of Campaign and Political Finance noted in the agreement that the party’s current leaders have fully cooperated with the investigation. The party did not admit to violating the law.
The agreement was reached on Aug. 29 but was released to the public this week.
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OCPF conducted an audit of the party’s bank records and flagged 11 donations it received between March and December 2022. These totaled $36,759.45. By far the largest donation, a check for $27,723.45, came from the congressional campaign of Dean Tran.
Tran, a former state senator, unsuccessfully attempted to oust Rep. Lori Trahan in 2022. Earlier this year, he was sentenced to 18 months in prison on federal fraud charges. Prosecutors said Tran fraudulently collected more than $30,000 in pandemic unemployment benefits and collected income that he failed to report to the IRS.
In June, Tran pleaded guilty on separate state charges that he stole a gun from an elderly constituent. He is serving a six-month sentence concurrently with the 18-month federal sentence. Tran has also been indicted on charges that he violated state ethics laws by using members of his Senate staff to campaign for him during his reelection campaigns in 2018 and 2020.
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The state party is barred from taking contributions from federal accounts like Tran’s congressional campaign, according to OCPF. After OCPF identified this donation as potentially coming from a prohibited source, the state party “incorrectly” amended its finance report to show that the Tran donation came from his state campaign account, which would have been allowed. OCPF officials later confirmed that the donation came from Tran’s congressional campaign, according to the agreement.
The party believed that its “books were clean” in late 2023 after talks with OCPF, the party’s current chair, Amy Carnevale, told The Boston Globe. But copies of checks obtained by OCPF through a grand jury investigation unrelated to the party identified more than $73,000 in prohibited donations. The party eventually negotiated its penalty down to about $36,000.
The state party did not respond to a request for comment Thursday morning. Canevale told the Globe that “sloppy accounting practices” were mostly to blame for the excess and prohibited contributions.
“We’re grateful for the opportunity to continue to put the 2022 election behind us and really focus on our ability to support candidates moving forward in the 2026 cycle,” she told the paper.
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