The FBI arrested Massachusetts State Rep. Francisco Paulino (D-Methuen) on Wednesday morning after a federal grand jury indicted the second-term Democrat on 11 counts of wire fraud and money laundering.
Prosecutors say Paulino treated COVID relief programs like an ATM, fraudulently obtaining more than $700,000 in pandemic unemployment benefits and Small Business Administration disaster loans.
Paulino represents the 16th Essex District, which includes Methuen and Lawrence, the same Merrimack Valley corridor that just saw Lawrence Mayor Brian DePeña arrested two weeks ago on separate $1.5 million-plus COVID loan fraud and money-laundering charges.
Both men are Dominican-born Democrats. Both, prosecutors allege, used the pandemic as their “personal cash cows.”