Crime
The former union president and lobbyist were arrested in August 2019 and have been embroiled in the charges ever since.
Dana Pullman, seen here in 2023, and co-conspirator Anne Lynch received additional sentencing Wednesday for their crimes. David L Ryan/The Boston Globe
A former Massachusetts State Police union president and the union’s former lobbyist were sentenced Wednesday for racketeering, fraud, obstruction of justice, and tax crimes, according to prosecutors.
Dana Pullman, 64, of Worcester, was sentenced in federal court to two years in prison followed by one year of supervised release, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts announced. Pullman, who was a state trooper from 1987 to 2018, was also ordered to pay $43,915 in restitution.
Anne Lynch, 75, of Hull, was sentenced to 15 months in prison followed by one year of supervised release, prosecutors said. Lynch, a former union lobbyist and close friend of Pullman’s, was also ordered to pay $41,795 in restitution.
The union, formally known as the State Police Association of Massachusetts (SPAM), consists of more than 1,500 troopers and sergeants. It acts as “the exclusive bargaining agent” between its members and the Commonwealth, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
Pullman became the union’s president in 2012, and, during his tenure, Lynch’s lobbying firm represented the union, according to prosecutors. He resigned in September 2018 amid a federal investigation into allegations that he and Lynch had turned the union into “a racketeering enterprise.”
“Dana Pullman and Anne Lynch ran the Massachusetts State Police union like an old-school racket, siphoning money from troopers, deceiving the Commonwealth, hiding income from the IRS and then lying when they got caught,” U.S. Attorney Leah Foley said in Wednesday’s statement. “Their conduct was deliberate, sustained and corrosive.”
In August 2019, Pullman and Lynch were arrested and charged with wire fraud, honest services wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and honest services wire fraud, and obstruction of justice. Joseph Bonavolonta, former special agent in charge of the FBI’s Boston field office, said at the time that Pullman “wielded the union like a criminal enterprise, running it like an old-school mob boss.”
Prosecutors later found that the defendants stole money from SPAM, with Pullman using the union’s debit card to “pay personal expenses for him and his then-girlfriend,” including lavish meals, gifts, travel, and a new car. At one point during Pullman’s tenure, Lynch paid him a $20,000 kickback in connection with a union settlement agreement, according to prosecutors.
The president and lobbyist hid the kickback to avoid reporting the income or paying taxes to the IRS, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. When subpoenas were issued in 2018, Pullman encouraged the union’s treasurer to lie and say that they had a policy to destroy expense records more than a year old.
Pullman and Lynch were indicted by a federal grand jury in September 2019. After an October 2022 trial, they were found guilty the following month on three counts of wire fraud and one count each of racketeering conspiracy, honest services wire fraud, obstruction of justice, and conspiracy to defraud the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
Additionally, Pullman was convicted of two more counts of wire fraud and two counts of aiding and assisting the filing of a false tax return, according to prosecutors. Lynch was also convicted of a second count of obstruction of justice and four counts of aiding and assisting in the filing of a false tax return.
In May 2023, Pullman was sentenced to 30 months in prison and three years of probation. Lynch was sentenced to two years in prison and two years of probation. Both defendants were ordered to pay restitution.
The U.S. First Circuit Court of Appeals later reversed three of the defendants’ wire fraud convictions, one of Lynch’s tax convictions, and one of Lynch’s obstruction of justice convictions in June 2025. They let the remaining convictions stand.
“Mr. Pullman and Ms. Lynch exploited their positions of trust and authority for their own personal gain, betraying the very people they were meant to serve,” Thomas Demeo, special agent in charge of the IRS’ Boston field office, said in Wednesday’s statement. “The reversal of some convictions does not erase the damage wrought by years of fraudulent financial conduct, including the misuse of union funds and tax evasion.”
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