In response to ABC Information, an ex-lawmaker from Connecticut was anticipated to show himself in to authorities on December 4, 2023, to start out serving a federal jail sentence for wire fraud.
Former state consultant Michael DiMassa, 32, had pleaded responsible to three counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud in November 2022, having been arrested on October 20, 2021. (He resigned from Connecticut’s Home of Representatives 5 days later.)
DiMassa was convicted of stealing a complete of $1.2 million in COVID-19 aid cash in addition to extra funds from the town of West Haven.
Each DiMassa and his spouse acquired jail sentences for the crime
Earlier this yr, DiMassa, whose district included West Haven, acquired his wire-fraud punishment. Court docket paperwork point out that the previous lawmaker was sentenced to 27 months in jail.
He should additionally pay practically $866,000 in restitution and, after serving his jail sentence, should serve 5 years of supervised launch (probation). Throughout that point, he should additionally carry out 100 hours of group service.
And that’s not all. Below his sentencing phrases, after he’s launched from jail, DiMassa should take part in applications for treating playing habit.
He was initially set to report back to jail on July 31, 2023. Nonetheless, a decide postponed his give up date twice in order that he might take care of his new child child till his spouse and co-defendant, Lauren Knox, was launched from jail after serving a 6-month sentence for conspiracy to commit wire fraud. She’d pleaded responsible to 1 rely of the offense.
Knox, who was pregnant with the couple’s second youngster when she began her sentence, was launched from jail on October 20, 2023, and is now in house confinement.
Wire fraud netted over $1 million
The DiMassa couple’s wire fraud offenses netted them and their co-conspirators over $1 million in stolen funds, in accordance with the U.S. Legal professional’s Workplace for the District of Connecticut.
The legal professional’s workplace mentioned that DiMassa, whereas serving as a state consultant and as an administrative assistant for the West Haven Metropolis Council, was approved to approve reimbursements of COVID-19 prices incurred by West Haven through funds from the federal authorities’s Coronavirus Support, Reduction and Financial Safety (CARES) Act.
He was one in every of two individuals approved by the Metropolis Council to behave as a mayoral designee with a view to log off on pandemic-related bills pertaining to the town’s allocation of federal grant cash.
The legal professional’s workplace mentioned that between July 2020 and September 2021, DiMassa “conspired with others to steal these funds and different West Haven funds by means of the submission of fraudulent invoices, and subsequent cost, for COVID aid items and providers that had been by no means offered.”
Among the many invoices had been payments for a youth violence prevention program and “Youth Violence COVID-19 Related Bills.” Companies had been to incorporate:
- In-home counseling
- Particular wants hourly providers
- A fall youth clinic
- Wi-Fi help for low- and moderate-income households
- Gear leases
- Licensing charges
- Meals
- Cleansing provides
DiMassa and his spouse billed the town for these providers and acquired $147,776, the legal professional’s workplace mentioned.
DiMassa and a metropolis worker shaped fraudulent firm to steal COVID-19 aid funds
In a associated offense, DiMassa and John Bernardo, a metropolis worker with the Group Growth Administration, shaped an organization that fraudulently billed the town and its “COVID-19 Grant Division” for consulting providers offered to the West Haven Well being Division. Court docket paperwork point out that these providers had been by no means carried out.
Nonetheless, the town paid the corporate $636,783 for fraudulent billings between February 2021 and September 2021. DiMassa then allegedly made a number of giant money withdrawals from the corporate’s checking account.
Court docket paperwork point out that a few of these withdrawals occurred about the identical time that he made a money “buy-in” of gaming chips at Mohegan Solar On line casino in Uncasville, Connecticut.
In June 2022, Bernardo pleaded responsible to 1 rely of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Later, he was sentenced to 13 months in jail. As well as, he was ordered to pay about $59,000 in restitution.
DiMassa was additionally convicted of conspiring with John Trasacco, a West Haven businessman, to fraudulently invoice the town greater than $431,000 for items and providers through 2 firms owned by Trasacco.
The legal professional’s workplace mentioned the products and providers included:
- Delivering private protecting gear
- Sustaining air flow, heating and air con models
- Cleansing college buildings
- Delivering COVID-19 provides to the Board of Schooling
One college constructing that was alleged to have been cleaned had been deserted and vacant for years.
Co-conspirator will get harshest sentence after trial
In December 2022, a jury discovered Trasacco responsible of 1 rely of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and 1 rely of wire fraud. In April 2023, he was sentenced to eight years in jail and ordered to pay practically $144,000 in restitution.
Of the 4 co-conspirators, solely Trasacco—who acquired the harshest sentence—didn’t settle for a pre-trial plea deal however reasonably moved on to a jury trial.
Such pre-trial processes contain a defendant pleading responsible with a view to keep away from a trial and, in alternate, maybe receiving a lesser punishment. At trial, DiMassa was a key witness in opposition to Trasacco for presidency prosecutors.
As for DiMassa, the New Haven Register reported that his legal professional, when requesting a second postponement of sentencing, mentioned his shopper would report back to a facility in Lompoc, California, when starting his 27-month sentence.
White-collar wire fraud is a critical crime
The white-collar crime of wire fraud is a critical offense, and, like different non-violent white-collar crimes, it might carry extreme punishments, together with years in jail and steep fines or restitution.
Such crimes can contain a federal cost, as within the case above, or a state cost—or each.
Texas legislation covers many sorts of white-collar offenses, together with wire fraud. Such crimes are typically charged because the offense of theft.
Maybe you or somebody in your loved ones within the Houston space faces a declare, accusation, allegation and even cost of a white-collar crime, akin to:
- Id theft
- Antitrust violations
- Compounding pharmacy fraud
- Conspiracy
- Mail fraud
If that’s the case, you want the very best Houston white-collar legal protection lawyer or wire fraud legal professional you could find to guard your authorized rights.
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