A HIGH-PROFILE federal criminal case against an unsuccessful congressional candidate goes back before a federal judge Thursday, and some insiders are speculating the eventual outcome could have serious repercussions for the defendant — of course innocent until proven guilty.
Beej Das was arrested on June 21 on charges of violating the Federal Election Campaign Act and making false statements.
Das, who moved to Lowell temporarily from Andover to run for the 3rd Congressional District seat, was indicted on one count of accepting excessive campaign contributions, one count of conduit contributions, one count of conversion of campaign funds, one count of engaging in a scheme to falsify, conceal and cover up material facts, and two counts of making a false statement.
“Today, we arrested Abhijit Das for allegedly soliciting his friends and family for at least $125,000 in illegal campaign contributions, repeatedly dipping into his campaign coffers to pay outstanding debts related to his hotel business, and falsifying campaign finance reports to try and cover his tracks,” said Joseph R. Bonavolonta, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Boston Division. “We believe Mr. Das engineered this calculated scheme to show he was a viable candidate for office, at the expense of voters and the election process. The FBI will continue to investigate allegations of campaign finance abuse like these to ensure openness and fairness in our elections so that everyone’s interests are protected.”
In order to overcome a fundraising deficit during the 2017-18 campaign, Das allegedly devised a scheme in or about December 2017 to solicit personal loans from friends and close associates in excess of the legal limit. On or about Dec. 17, 2017, Das allegedly emailed a contributor asking for a friend to support his campaign to reach a specific fundraising goal of over $450,000 by the end of the year and indicated that reaching that goal might need “some engineering.” It is alleged that Das advised a member of his campaign that he would “aggregate” the loans into “one batch” and execute a main transfer into the campaign account.
The indictment further alleges that Das caused three different individuals to contribute about $125,000 to his campaign and structured the contributions as personal loans to a family member to circumvent Federal Election Commission reporting requirement and contribution limits. Das allegedly concealed the excessive campaign contributions from the FEC, falsely claimed that the funds from the excessive contributions were his own personal funds, and engaged in illegal conduit contributions to his campaign.
According to federal documents acquired by The Column, the feds have in their possession 34,000 pages of documents, bank records, investigative reports, search warrant applications, FEC records and emails and texts from the defendant.
The three-lawyer Das legal team is reviewing the government’s discovery, according to one document. Following Thursday’s hearing, another status hearing will likely be scheduled for December.
One local person who is not following the case is Deb Belanger, who worked as a field organizer on Das’ campaign.
Belanger said she was questioned by the feds twice. During the initial questioning, an FBI agent told Belanger she wasn’t in trouble.
“It’s his karma, not mine,” said Belanger, who is an at-large candidate for Lowell City Council.
Stonehedge at a standstill
ADD THE future Chateau Merrimack, formerly the Stonehedge Inn in Tyngsboro, to the list of businesses and industries impeded by the global supply chain crisis. Everything from Christmas toys to automobiles and home appliances are waiting on container ships at the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles.
The Chateau awaits delivery of furniture and other materials, which must first be unloaded from one of the estimated 500,000 containers sitting in the waters off southern California, where authorities are also trying to contain an oil spill that one of the ships may have caused.
More than two years ago, the Stonehedge Inn — when it was owned by Das — was foreclosed upon for nonpayment of taxes. It was auctioned off in May 2020. At the time of the auction, Tyngsboro was owed $150,000 in taxes. The new owners were required to pay those taxes as part of the sale transaction.
The global supply chain crisis is not the first impediment the new owners, Xiangjun Li and Jonathan Eid, have faced in opening their hotel.
Their company, Vienna Capital of Los Angeles, now owns the building. Most of the licenses associated with the inn’s operation transferred to the new owner, but the alcohol licenses did not, according to state law. They could not obtain licenses until the old ones expired on Jan. 1.
During a tour of the property last winter, Eid said he hoped for a grand opening in April. But he hit delays because the state took several months to grant new alcohol licenses.
Then came the COVID-19-related supply chain problems, so the opening date slipped to July, then October. Now, the owners hope to open in time for Christmas and New Year’s, but are trying to be realistic when they add “next year, maybe January.”
A few days ago, an unexpected visitor was given a tour of the renovations, which include a detached wine bar and cafe. A deck was under construction, which the guide said would allow patrons to sit and have a glass of wine and a cigar.
Joining the tour of the property was a gregarious foxhound. In the dining room, an oil painting rested on the floor, depicting a horse surrounded by several foxhounds. The guide pointed to the hounds and her own dog, “we have one, too” she said. And then added, “This belonged to the original owner.” Of course, the original owner was the late Gil Campbell, who was known for many things, including raising horses.
Moulton spending questioned
A GOVERNMENT watchdog group has filed a complaint with the Office of Congressional Ethics against Rep. Seth Moulton, saying that he used funds from a leadership PAC for personal travel expenses.
The Campaign Legal Center filed the complaint Wednesday against Moulton, whose district includes Bedford, Billerica, Burlington, Tewksbury and Wilmington. In its filing, the CLC accused Moulton of using funds from his PAC, Serve America, for personal expenses, including meals, travel and lodging.
“Rep. Moulton’s leadership PAC spent money on travel at hotels that appear to be vacations,” the complaint says. “As a result, these expenses are considered personal use unless Rep. Moulton provides verification that these were bona fide campaign or political expenses.”
The complaint goes on to say that in a report CLC released Oct. 1, they determined that between January 2019 and December 2020, Serve America spent about $1.7 million, but only 8% of that went toward political campaigns.
In a statement, Moulton denied the CLC’s accusations, saying that all of his PAC’s spending was appropriate.
“When Serve America spends money, it is being spent on helping Democrats win and nothing else,” he said. “Every trip, every hotel room, every event that is included in this report is directly connected to Serve America’s work raising money or supporting candidates. I’m proud of the work the organization does, and all of that work is done with integrity. The CLC is wrong. I look forward to setting the record straight.”
According to Serve America, many of the examples cited in the CLC’s report of supposedly personal spending were actually for political campaign events, or else outright incorrect. A March 2020 expense of $3,200 at an upscale New York City restaurant was part of a fundraising dinner for Congressional candidate Jackie Gordon, and a $350 dinner in Chicago in January 2019 was a staff dinner with a donor as part of a two-day fundraising trip for Chicago Invest to Elect Women.
The PAC further said that CLC’s statement that Moulton spent $6,800 on lodging in the time period in question was incorrect. According to Serve America, the organization paid more than $4,600 to an AirBnB for Moulton and his staff to stay in Milwaukee during the Democratic National Convention in 2020, which was completely refunded after the convention was cancelled due to the pandemic.
All other travel spending was for campaign events, the PAC said.
Moulton might want to get some advice from Rep. Lori Trahan. The legal center also alleged the 3rd District representative violated federal campaign finance laws. A House committee eventually cleared Trahan of any wrongdoing.
Dillon’s antics roil meeting
LOWELL SCHOOL Committee member Mike Dillon was one for three with his motions at Wednesday’s meeting.
His colleagues supported his motion seeking a report on the current staffing of school resource officers, but shot down his attempts to defy the state mandate for masks in schools and begin looking at how to challenge the consent decree that desegregated Lowell schools in the late 1980s.
Dillon has been a vocal critic of kids wearing masks in school during the pandemic, especially when participating in physical activity. He’s also repeatedly said he wants to return to neighborhood schools.
Neither of his motions were surprising. Nor was the majority of the committee’s opposition to defying the state or the federal court — though it was interesting Mayor John Leahy supported both of them, saying he didn’t see the harm in getting reports from Superintendent Joel Boyd on either, knowing there was no commitment to action.
The second motion was worded innocently enough: “request that the committee and administration discuss initial steps required to improve our district map/school assignment policy.”
Dillon almost won over some of his colleagues — including those who often disagree with him, like Jackie Doherty — until he made his underlying intent clear.
“Well I think in order to change these things we would need to defy the consent decree, and that’s something that I think is eventually gonna need to happen,” Dillon said.
Doherty said she was interested in re-examining the school zoning and assignment process — but not at the expense of the balance of diversity in the schools.
“I won’t be supporting the motion because I do have concerns about the subtext that’s being described now of wanting to investigate the legal strategies for eliminating the consent decree,” said committee member Connie Martin, who asked for a roll call vote on it.
She also noted the city had entered a covenant with the state in regard to the new schools built in the period after the consent decree, in which the state paid upwards of 90% of every dollar spent and the city had to keep its promise that the schools would remain desegregated and representative of the full diversity — including racial, ethnic and socioeconomic — in the community.
Dillon wanted to comment again on the motion at that point, but Leahy said he’d already had both of his chances to speak on it.
“Well can I ask Ms. Martin a question?” Dillon said.
“Well no, it’s not a debate really, it’s just gonna vote the motion up or down,” Leahy said, which Dillon followed with further protest and an exasperated sigh.
Committee member Hilary Clark then said she was also interested in making some improvements to the map and school assignment policy, “based on some of the additional information that’s been discussed,” that she would not mind moving in a direction to defy the consent decree.
Clark’s comments were interrupted by Dillon remarking, “Wow, wow,” and committee member Andy Descoteaux, who sits between Clark and Dillon, admonishing him.
“Everyone,” Leahy said, also briefly stepping in as a warning.
Clark went on to agree with Martin that the city needs to ensure diversity among a number of areas while improving the process — and ensuring all the schools provide an equitable education.
After both Doherty and Dominik Lay said they could also not support the motion, Leahy let Dillon speak again just to provide clarification.
“Yeah, I would like to clarify because now everybody gets scared as soon as you say consent decree,” Dillon said, adding that it “strains this district in a lot of different ways.”
He reiterated his belief that defying the consent decree may be necessary.
“This turned into everybody just got scared because you hear the word diversity and nobody, no we can’t go against that,” Dillon said.
He claimed “nobody’s got the guts” to even request information on what it would take to overturn the decree, and that the discussion “turned into a race issue.”
Diversity wasn’t the only word that irritated Dillon Wednesday.
Later in the meeting, during a long discussion about raising substitute teacher pay and the idea of creating permanent sub positions in certain schools, Dillon remarked, “We can’t go more than 10 minutes without saying ‘equity’ around here.”
Then, after Leahy briefly switched places with Descoteaux so he could ask questions on the proposal and returned to the chair, Dillon said to Leahy, “glad you’re not sitting next to me anymore.”
New Lowell High School student representative Chris Ferriera certainly got a show at his first committee meeting.
Students finally placed
FOLLOWING THE School Committee’s Sept. 23 special meeting where it discussed the 394 students that had not been placed in city schools almost a month into the school year, the committee was relieved Wednesday to hear that number had been reduced to 14 as of Oct. 1, along with a pre-K waitlist of 65.
Boyd pointed to extra hours put in by both Family Resource Center employees and nurses in handling the backlog and additional enrollments since then. Checking immunization records had been the biggest reason for the backlog, along with English language testing.
That relief came with a grain of salt, however, when Chief Equity & Engagement Officer Latifah Phillips said that though the majority of the students had been assigned schools, there were still many who were missing vaccinations and were not yet medically cleared to attend.
The committee also heard from Fred McOsker, a former school employee of over 30 years who came out of retirement to assist the Family Resource Center in processing all of the enrollments.
McOsker enumerated several challenges employees and families alike face in the preregistration process, from inadequate electronic systems that don’t talk to one another or can’t be used on mobile devices, to poorly scanned, barely legible records that need to be translated.
He asked that school officials look to improve operations, and suggested they begin exploring a single hybrid registration model that allows families to access the system on any device, as well as make in-person visits to the Family Resource Center if needed.
NMCOG in transition
BEVERLY WOODS will retire at the end of the year after four decades at the Northern Middlesex Council of Governments.
The agency’s executive director politely turned down an interview request from The Sun, for the time being anyway.
Woods’ job has been posted as NMCOG searches for a new executive director. The salary range for the position is $120,000-$150,000. Applications closed Sept. 30.
This is a very busy stretch for Woods. She explained a large-scale project was due Friday. She’s also busy searching for the replacement of the agency’s assistant director, Jay Donovan. Donovan’s successor will be paid $90,000-$110,000. Donovan, who has been with NMCOG for 20 years, will retire this coming Friday.
Applicants closed Oct. 1 for a third position, transportation planner, which carries a yearly salary of $55,000-$75,000.
The NMCOG is one of 13 regional planning agencies in Massachusetts. Founded in 1963, it’s a public agency governed by a policy board comprised of local elected officials from Billerica, Chelmsford, Dracut, Dunstable, Lowell, Pepperell, Tewksbury, Tyngsboro and Westford.
Woods plans to sit down with a Sun reporter soon.
Kathy Plath joins MRA board
A WELL-KNOWN Lowell restaurateur has been selected to serve on the Massachusetts Restaurant Association board of directors.
Kathy Plath, who owns Cobblestones in downtown Lowell with her husband, Scott, was among seven new directors announced.
The MRA is one of the more active business organizations in the state, particularly lately, as restaurant owners have fought to stay alive during the pandemic.
Regarding Plath, the MRA said: “Kathleen is co-owner of three successful restaurants with her husband Scott; Cobblestones of Lowell, moonstones in Chelmsford, and the recently opened Stones Social in Nashua, N.H. She helped to launch these restaurants and oversees the financial, marketing, PR, HR, and administrative functions of all businesses. She has been an active member of the Greater Lowell Community as a board member of many nonprofit organizations, including the Middlesex Community College Board of Trustees, Lowell General Hospital, and Boys and Girls Club of Greater Lowell.”
When Plath isn’t worrying about the restaurant industry, she serves as the development and communications officer at Community Teamwork, Inc. The Column never knew this, but she’s also a licensed as a Massachusetts Realtor.
Voting behind bars
A BILL filed in the state Senate this week would, among other measures, make it easier for incarcerated people in Massachusetts to vote. While incarcerated felons are ineligible to vote in the state, others, including those imprisoned while awaiting trial, are still eligible, but often face hurdles getting their ballots in.
The bill would require jails and prisons to provide information to their inmates about voting procedures, help them register to vote if necessary and ensure that ballots are returned.
Middlesex County Sheriff Peter Koutoujian said in a statement that ensuring those imprisoned here are able to vote has always been a priority.
“I grew up watching my father — Waltham’s city clerk — run elections in our hometown and assist colleagues in several other communities,” Koutoujian said. “As a first-generation American and son of Armenian refugees, his passion for civic engagement and voting made an indelible mark on me.”
During the 2016 and 2018 elections, he said, his office worked with the League of Women Voters to run voter education drives, register new voters and assist those interested in receiving absentee ballots. In 2020, when the pandemic stopped League volunteers from visiting, Sheriff’s Office staff continued the work.
In addition, Koutoujian said, since November 2019, his office has helped 192 people register to vote as part of their re-entry process from prison.
“I look forward to continuing to work with members of the Legislature, the secretary of the commonwealth, local elections officials, and community partners to ensure all eligible individuals have the opportunity to cast ballots who wish to do so,” he said.
This week’s Column was prepared by Reporters Alana Melanson in Lowell; Prudence Brighton in Tyngsboro; Barry Scanlon, also in Lowell; Trea Lavery in Billerica, Tewksbury and Wilmington; and Enterprise Editor Christopher Scott.
