The trial of a former state senator and one-time congressional candidate accused of collecting unemployment benefits illegally during the pandemic and failing to report rental income to the IRS begins Tuesday in federal court in Boston.Dean Tran, 48, of Fitchburg, who served in the state senate from 2017 until January 2021, pleaded not guilty last November to 25 counts of wire fraud and three counts of filing false tax returns, according to court records.After Tran left public office, he allegedly “applied for pandemic unemployment benefits despite having already accepted a job as a paid consultant for a New Hampshire-based automotive parts company,” federal prosecutors have said.Prosecutors allege that Tran received more than $30,000 in fraudulent jobless benefits, failed to disclose more than $50,000 in earnings from the auto parts company on his 2021 federal tax return, and concealed “thousands of dollars” he received from a Fitchburg rental property between 2020 and 2022.AdvertisementIn an interview Monday night, Tran denied the charges and claimed the US attorney’s office and federal investigators hold a “political bias” against him because he leans to the right politically. He said he believes “none of this would have happened” if he were a Democrat or a private citizen outside the political arena.“I am looking forward to the trial and my attorneys and I are looking forward to exposing the lies, the corruption, and the politically motivated office of the US attorney,” Tran said.In a statement announcing Tran’s arrest last November, Massachusetts US Attorney Joshua Levy said the grand jury’s indictment alleged Tran “exploited pandemic unemployment benefits — diverting critical resources intended for deserving individuals genuinely in need.”Tran, who ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 2022 after losing his Senate reelection bid in 2020, said that he became unemployed after leaving office in 2021, in the midst of the pandemic, and applied “to hundreds of jobs” but they resulted in few responses.He said he applied for state unemployment benefits but was denied. He said he was then referred to the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program, which he said had more lenient requirements, and his application was accepted.“The application was approved on several layers, including the superior of the person who interviewed me for eligibility,” Tran said.AdvertisementTran is also facing federal charges of obstruction of justice and perjury in a separate but related case, in which he is accused of collaborating with his sister in writing a letter making a fake job offer to Tran from his sister’s New Hampshire-based food distribution company without disclosing that she was the owner and chief executive, according to prosecutors.Prosecutors allege that Tran used the phony letter to appeal his denial of COVID-19 pandemic unemployment assistance. The letter purported that Tran had been offered a position as director of product quality, earning $120,000 a year, at his sister’s family-owned Asian foods company, Alecon Enterprises Inc.Tran and his sister, Tuyet Martin, were both indicted in that case in June. The indictment alleges that Tran signed his sister’s name and backdated the letter by several months before submitting it as part of his appeal after he was denied benefits. He referenced the letter while under oath during an appeal hearing in May 2021.Tran and Martin later allegedly lied about the letter and tried to conceal and delete emails they sent each other about it, prosecutors said.Martin pleaded not guilty to two counts of obstruction of justice and one count of perjury. The next court date for Tran and Martin in that case is Oct. 3, according to court records.At the time of their arrests in June, Levy said the charges against the siblings “represent a serious breach of public trust.”“Their alleged calculated effort to defraud the government and deceive federal investigators demonstrate a disturbing disregard for the law,” Levy said at the time.AdvertisementMaterial from previous Globe coverage was used in this report.Nick Stoico can be reached at nick.stoico@globe.com.
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