Two more State Cops are indicted...and rightfully so

I suspect this on-going investigation will not end in 2020 or even when Fed Prosecutor Lelling is replaced. Nearly every month, a new more egregious story comes out about law enforcement.

https://patch.com/massachusetts/framingham/s/hcgtt/two-former-state-police-troopers-charged-in-overtime-scheme?utm_source=nearby-news&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=alert

Two more former State Troopers were charged in the overtime scheme that cost taxpayers thousands.

Former MSP Lieutenant Daniel J. Griffin and former MSP Sergeant William W. Robertson were charged with conspiracy, federal programs embezzlement and wire fraud on Friday.

Griffin, 57, of Belmont, was also charged with filing false tax returns and wire fraud related to his own scheme to defraud a private school. Robertson, 58, is from Westborough.

According to the indictment, from 2015 through 2018, Griffin, Robertson, and other troopers in the Traffic Programs Section at State Police Headquarters in Framingham conspired to embezzle thousands of dollars in federally funded overtime. The troopers showed up late to overtime shifts and regularly left early, according to U.S Attorney Andrew Lelling. Griffin made and approved false entries on police forms and other documentation to conceal and perpetuate the fraud.

Griffin and Robertson, along with other troopers involved, are accused of shredding and burning the evidence of embezzlement and fraud once the scheme was made public. Griffin submitted a memo to his superiors that was designed to mislead them by claiming that missing forms were "inadvertently discarded or misplaced" during office moves.

While the overtime scheme was going on, Griffin spent significant time running his security business, KnightPro, even when he was collecting his regular MSP pay and overtime. Lelling pointed out that Griffin had approval to have a private business.

From 2012 to 2019, Griffin collected almost $2 million in KnightPro revenue. Of that total, Griffin is accused of hiding over $700,000 in revenue from the IRS and used hundreds of thousands of dollars in KnightPro income to fund personal expenses, such as golf club expenses, car payments, private school tuition and expenses related to his second home on Cape Cod.

Griffin was also charged with defrauding a private school two of his children went to from at least 2016 to 2019 by concealing his KnightPro income and filing misleading financial aid applications, which understated his income and assets by hundreds of thousands of dollars. Despite Griffin's lucrative MSP salary and KnightPro business, Griffin obtained over $175,000 in financial aid from the private school over the course of several years.

At a press conference on Friday, Lelling said he didn't believe the troopers actions put civilians in danger, but that it was a shame that the troopers who should have been on the road were not. When asked about whether the troopers would face jail time, Lelling said an indictment in itself held long term consequences for the lives and careers of the former troopers.

The charge of wire fraud provides for a sentence of up to 20 years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of $250,000. The charge of federal program fraud provides for a sentence of up to 10 years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of $250,000. The charge of conspiracy provides for a sentence of up to five years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of $250,000. The charge of filing false tax returns provides for a sentence of up to three years in prison, one year of supervised release and a fine of $100,000. Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based upon the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.