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Rep. David Nangle walked from the Moakley Federal Courthouse to an idling car on Feb. 18, 2020. Photo by Sam Doran | State House News Service/File
Former Massachusetts state Rep. David Nangle pleaded guilty Wednesday to several charges, including defrauding a bank to obtain loans to purchase his home and repay his personal debts.
Nangle, 60, of Lowell, pleaded guilty in Boston federal court to 10 counts of wire fraud, four counts of bank fraud, four counts of making false statements to a bank and five counts of filing false tax returns, according to a statement from the U.S. attorney’s office. Nangle had been arrested and charged in February 2020.
Nangle, who represented the 17th Middlesex District from 1999 to 2020, was heavily in debt and gambled extensively at area casinos and online, according to the U.S. attorney’s statement. Prosecutors said Nangle fraudulently obtained loans from at least 2015 through 2018 from a Lowell bank to finance the purchase of his home, fund his gambling activities and repay his personal debts. He made false statements on multiple loan applications, misstated his income and understated his debt.
According to the U.S. attorney’s statement, Nangle, who previously served as a House Ethics Committee Chairman, also used his campaign committee’s debit card to make personal purchases, including thousands of dollars in gift cards for his personal use. He also used thousands of dollars in campaign funds to pay for various personal expenses, such as dues at a local golf club, rental cars to travel to casinos, flowers for his girlfriend, gas, hotels and restaurants, the statement said.
Nangle knew that using campaign funds for personal use was prohibited and subject to oversight by an independent state agency, according to the statement, and concealed his theft by filing false reports that disguised the personal nature of the spending.
Separately, Nangle filed false tax returns for tax years 2014 to 2018 by reporting fictitious business deductions for purported consulting work that he did for a Billerica company, the statement said. Nangle also double dipped on deductible expenses arising from his work as a state legislator, fraudulently claiming thousands of dollars in false deductions for alleged charitable donations and misleading his tax preparer.
Further, Nangle concealed the income he received through goods and services from business owners and other sources, including $7,000 in kitchen and bathroom work done in Nangle’s home, $7,000 in check payments from a contractor, gambling income from a Connecticut casino, and thousands of dollars that he stole from his campaign account, the statement said.
Sentencing was scheduled for June 24. The charge of wire fraud provides for a sentence of up to 20 years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of $250,000. The charges of bank fraud and making false statements to a bank each provide for a sentence of up to 30 years in prison, five years of supervised release and a fine of $1 million. The charge of filing false tax returns provides for a sentence of up to three years in prison, one year of supervised release and a fine of $100,000.
