Federal agents used a bullhorn and a battering ram to haul a sitting Massachusetts mayor out of his home on fraud charges, accusing him of treating pandemic small-business loans like a personal slush fund for mortgages, back taxes, and a mayoral campaign.
Brian Depena, the 61-year-old Democratic mayor of Lawrence, Massachusetts, was arrested Friday on one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering after prosecutors said he diverted more than $1.5 million in Covid-19 Small Business Administration disaster loan money away from the tire shop it was meant to save. FBI agents from the Boston Division descended on Depena's home in Lawrence, forced entry, and took him into custody before transporting him to federal court in Boston for an initial appearance Friday afternoon.
Depena walked out of court hours later, flashing a broad smile at the cameras. His defense attorney, Carlos Apostle, offered reporters nothing but repeated "no comment" responses. When a reporter asked Depena whether he planned to resign, the mayor replied, "God bless." He said nothing else.
The charges carry a combined maximum of 30 years in federal prison and up to $500,000 in fines. A federal judge released Depena subject to conditions that included surrendering his passport, he holds citizenship in both the United States and the Dominican Republic, and a prohibition on seeking any new loans without court approval.
The alleged scheme began in 2020, when Depena obtained an SBA Economic Injury Disaster Loan for his business, Tenares Tire Services Inc., a tire sales and automotive services shop in Lawrence. Prosecutors say he initially used roughly $150,000 of the loan for legitimate business expenses. But he then requested a series of increases to the government-backed loan, eventually pushing the total to more than $1.5 million.
That money, federal prosecutors allege, went almost everywhere except the tire shop. The Washington Examiner reported that Depena allegedly spent more than $883,000 in loan proceeds to pay off two high-interest mortgages on various Lawrence properties. Another $90,000 allegedly went directly into his mayoral campaign fund ahead of the November 2021 election, the race that first put him in the mayor's office.
Prosecutors painted a picture of a candidate under financial pressure from multiple directions. Depena's campaign was running short of cash. He owed back taxes. And he was struggling to service high-interest loans on several properties in Lawrence. The SBA disaster loan program, designed to keep small businesses afloat during the pandemic, allegedly became his way out.
The loan still carries an outstanding balance of approximately $1.65 million, according to the charges. Taxpayers, in other words, are still on the hook.
Federal law enforcement officials did not hold back. Ted Docks, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI's Boston Division, accused Depena of "cashing in on a public health crisis and blatantly defrauding a government program meant to keep businesses afloat during the pandemic."
Docks went further in a written statement released after the arrest:
"When elected officials misuse federal funds for personal gain, they're breaking the trust of their constituents, and breaking the law. Together, with our partners, the FBI will continue to doggedly pursue anyone who defrauds the federal government."
The FBI added a pointed warning for anyone else who might have dipped into pandemic relief money for personal use: "You'll be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, and that 'easy money' won't seem so easy after all."
U.S. Attorney Leah B. Foley struck a similar tone, framing the arrest as a betrayal of the public trust that voters in Lawrence had placed in Depena. The case is hardly the only recent example of a federal crackdown on alleged Covid relief fraud, a pattern that has stretched from small-time grifters to public officials.
"Mayor DePena was elected to be a leader for the City of Lawrence. He was looked up to and trusted by his constituents, but he betrayed that trust through his alleged corruption and lies. Today's arrest is just another example of our determination to root out fraud by anyone, even public officials and holding elected officials accountable."
Depena served on the Lawrence City Council from 2016 to 2021 before winning the mayoral race in November 2021. He was reelected last November. Throughout that time, he also ran Tenares Tire Services, the business that served as the vehicle for the SBA loan.
The timeline prosecutors have laid out means that Depena was allegedly funneling federal disaster relief money into his campaign at the very moment he was asking Lawrence voters to trust him with the city's leadership. The $90,000 that prosecutors say landed in his campaign fund came from a program Congress created to help small businesses survive a once-in-a-generation economic shutdown, not to finance political ambitions.
Depena is far from the only Democratic officeholder to face serious legal trouble in recent months. Former Florida gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum recently landed back in an Alabama jail, while a Texas state legislator has faced scrutiny over residency fraud allegations.
The New York Post reported that Depena's attorney has indicated the mayor does not intend to resign. No formal plea has been entered, and it remains unclear whether Depena has been suspended from his duties or continues to serve as mayor while the case proceeds.
The arrest itself was anything but quiet. Neighbors told local television station WCVB that FBI agents arrived at Depena's Lawrence home and used a bullhorn to announce their presence before deploying a battering ram to force entry. For a city of roughly 90,000 people north of Boston, the spectacle of federal agents breaking down the mayor's front door sent an unmistakable message.
Depena faces up to 20 years in federal prison on the wire fraud charge alone, plus three years of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000. The money laundering count carries an additional 10 years, three more years of supervised release, and another $250,000 fine. The charges are allegations, and Depena is presumed innocent unless convicted.
But the facts prosecutors have outlined, a sitting mayor allegedly draining a pandemic relief loan dry while his constituents and legitimate small-business owners struggled, are the kind of case that erodes public trust in government at every level. Accountability matters most when the person in the chair is supposed to be the one enforcing it. In a broader landscape where elected officials face mounting questions about whether they play by the same rules they impose on everyone else, the Lawrence case lands hard.
Pandemic relief programs moved trillions of dollars out the door at emergency speed, and Americans were told the trade-off, less oversight now, accountability later, was worth it. Later has arrived. And for the people of Lawrence, it showed up with a bullhorn and a battering ram.