BOSTON — A former candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives in the 3rd Congressional District of Massachusetts was arrested Tuesday on charges of violating the Federal Election Campaign Act and making false statements.
Abhijit Das, 47, of North Andover, 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.
Das was a candidate in the 2017-2018 election. According to the indictment, Das allegedly devised a scheme around December 2017 to solicit personal loans from friends and close associates in excess of the legal limit.
Officials also said he emailed a contributor asking for a friend to support his campaign in order to reach a specific fundraising goal of more than $450,000 by the end of the year and said that reaching the goal may need “some engineering.”
Das allegedly advised a member of his campaign that he would “aggregate” the loans into “one batch” and then transfer the funds into the campaign account.
According to the indictment, Das caused three people to contribute approximately $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.
It’s also alleged that between January and May 2018, he withdrew around $314,000 from his campaign account and used at least $267,000 to pay debts for his hotel business.
While making the withdrawals, he allegedly tried to hide the conversion of campaign funds by telling bank tellers to report the withdrawals as separate withdrawal and deposit transactions, rather than a direct transfer.
The indictment shows Das allegedly aided and abetted in the submission of false information in reports to the FEC by overstating the amount of cash-on-hand the Das-for-Congress Campaign had in its campaign bank account.
“Mr. Das allegedly solicited illegal campaign donations, used the money for his own business expenses and debts, and then attempted to conceal his actions,” said Nathaniel R. Mendell, Acting United States Attorney for the District of Massachusetts. “We are committed to prosecuting this kind of criminal conduct, because doing so protects the election process and vindicates every voter’s right to law-abiding campaigns and transparent elections.”
Each of the charges carries a sentence of up to five years in prison, three years of supervised release and fine of $250,000, or twice the gross gain or loss, whichever is greater.
Das is expected to appear in court Tuesday afternoon.