It’s been so long since the downfall of ex-State Police Association of Mass don Dana Pullman and his co-conspirator, former lobbyist Anne Lynch, that I only vaguely recalled how the initial sentences for their crimes had neither a start nor a finish date.
That’s because while the duo was convicted in November 2022 on multiple counts including racketeering conspiracy and wire fraud, with Pullman and Lynch sentenced the following May, the First Circuit Court of Appeals later reversed some of the defendants’ convictions.
However, the “First Circuit affirmed the remaining convictions and remanded the case to the District Court for resentencing.” And this week, the US Department of Justice announced that the disgraced SPAM boss and his confederate were finally at long last “sentenced in federal court in Boston for racketeering, fraud, obstruction of justice and tax crimes.”
Pullman, 64, received two years in prison to be followed by one year of supervised release, and was also ordered to pay $43,915 in restitution. Lynch, 75, was sentenced to 15 months and ordered to pay $41,795.
But while the background of what led to the statie union honcho sleeping in a cell involves the sordid real-life version of what people purport to resent about law enforcement—literal compromised weapons contracts—as the story has played out, there’s little mention of that deal.
Lynch and Pullman ultimately dodged specific fraud charges related to the company that sells Tasers to Mass—that despite the nakedly insulting nature of those actions, exposed through these proceedings, to commonwealth taxpayers.
The courts overturned those convictions, and like the media, the public, and prosecutors, instead fixated on aspects of the saga that are more fit for a sleazy TV cop drama.
‘Give me the check!’
According to the initial complaint against him and Lynch, in 2014 Pullman negotiated for the state to pay SPAM $700,000 for expenses “SPAM claimed it had incurred in pursuing [a labor] grievance [against the state].” When a representative from the Commonwealth requested “documentation and receipts evidencing SPAM’s expenses,” Pullman reportedly “told the representative that he was going to ‘stalk’ the Governor’s Deputy Chief of Staff about this issue.”
Eventually, the state relented and agreed to pay SPAM $350,000 without having to provide any receipts. After SPAM received the full payment, its then-treasurer told investigators that Pullman demanded a check for $250,000 for Lynch Associates, pounding the table and yelling, “Stop breaking my f**cking balls and give me the check!” when the treasurer questioned him. After the treasurer relented and handed one over, Lynch allegedly received a $50,000 cut from her former lobbying firm, and the following day cut a check for $20,000 to Pullman’s spouse.
There were also more salacious aspects of the charges, with prosecutors alleging, “Pullman used the SPAM debit card to pay for thousands of dollars of meals, flowers, travel, and gifts for an individual with whom Pullman was having a romantic relationship.” Those were the convictions that ultimately stuck, and that Pullman and Lynch will now serve time for. But there’s a lot more to the story than a single lobbyist and former union honcho eating steak and lobster.
The Taser tie-in
When the Pullman-Lynch indictment dropped, our team at BINJ had already been impugning hundreds of state purchasing agreements for everything from body armor and silencers to stun guns in a partnership with MuckRock and the Emerson College Department of Journalism. So our ears perked up upon learning that the US attorney was noting that they “were also allegedly involved in a scheme to defraud two different companies that sought to do business with the Commonwealth.”
One of those companies was Taser International (now Axon Enterprise, which also sells police body cameras and anti-drone equipment). As BINJ first reported in February 2019, in an unusual move, the company had strangely retained two Mass lobbyists for government relations in the “public safety” sector. The criminal complaint explained why the extra firm was added: “Despite the fact that [Taser] already had a Boston area lobbying firm on retainer, Pullman pressured [Taser] to also hire [Lynch]. Based on Pullman’s words and actions, [the Taser employee present at the meeting] believed [Taser] would not be able to sell smart weapons to the MSP.”
There’s no mention of the past procurement subterfuge in the latest Department of Justice press release. That’s because the Taser-specific fraud convictions were reversed on appeal, with prosecutors choosing not to relitigate those charges, leading to a slight reduction in fines and sentencing. But Pullman was convicted on a lesser charge of failing to report the $5,000 he received from Lynch for pressuring Taser, and the arrangement also played into the findings on the larger overall racketeering conspiracy.
In the government’s memorandum on resentencing, the US attorney wrote: “Pullman’s fraud did not end with the hidden [Department of Labor] settlement kickback and the … Taser … payments. In fact, Pullman stole directly from SPAM—an organization funded almost entirely with dues paid by MSP Troopers—when he used the SPAM debit card to hide and fund his extramarital affair. And then he did not include the Lynch payments or his stolen luxuries on his personal tax returns.”
The biting assessment continues: “Pullman’s avarice was simply unlimited. … [His] reaction when he learned of the federal grand jury investigation into SPAM’s expenses is particularly reflective of his character. Several years’ worth of expense records ‘disappeared’ while Pullman was in the SPAM offices, and Pullman suggested to his protégé … that they lie to the grand jury about SPAM’s document retention policies.”
The bigger picture: even more so now than back when Pullman first got his card pulled, Massachusetts public safety agencies spend millions on advanced weaponry with minimal oversight, frequently exceeding budgets and bypassing fiscal controls. Axon, which continues to do major business with Mass and its municipalities, was victimized in this case. But the demonstrable lack of transparency nonetheless leaves room for ethically dubious weapons deals, fostering systemic overspending and procurement impropriety across state and local departments.
