Federal agents showed up at the home of Lawrence, Massachusetts Mayor Brian DePeña with a bullhorn and a battering ram, charging the 61-year-old Democrat with turning pandemic relief money into a personal and political slush fund.
DePeña was arrested on August 14 on one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Massachusetts announced. Prosecutors allege he obtained a Small Business Administration disaster loan for his tire shop, then inflated it tenfold and siphoned the money to pay off personal debts and bankroll his run for mayor. He appeared in Boston federal court the same day and was released under conditions that include surrendering his passport, remaining in Massachusetts, and getting court approval before applying for any new loans.
The charges center on the SBA's Economic Injury Disaster Loan program, a federal lifeline created during the COVID-19 pandemic to keep small businesses from going under. DePeña allegedly used the program to keep himself afloat instead.
The federal affidavit lays out a straightforward alleged scheme. In 2020, DePeña applied for and received a $150,000 SBA disaster loan on behalf of Tenares Tire Services, Inc., his Lawrence-based tire and auto service business. The loan was meant to cover operating costs the pandemic had disrupted.
By the following year, prosecutors say, DePeña's personal finances were under pressure. He owed back taxes, carried high-interest loans on several Lawrence properties, and needed cash for his first mayoral campaign. Rather than tighten his belt, he allegedly went back to the SBA and sought repeated increases to the government loan until it reached approximately $1.5 million.
Then, federal prosecutors allege, the money went everywhere except the tire business. Fox News reported that DePeña allegedly transferred nearly $90,000 to personal accounts, wrote more than $42,000 in checks to his own campaign committee, paid $85,000 to the IRS for personal back taxes, and used $883,293 to pay off personal mortgages. The loan, according to the Washington Examiner, still carries an outstanding balance of approximately $1.65 million.
In total, more than $880,000 allegedly went toward paying off high-interest mortgages on properties and businesses that had nothing to do with Tenares Tire Services. Another $90,000 was allegedly funneled directly into DePeña's mayoral campaign ahead of the 2021 election, an election he won.
He won re-election in November 2025. Nine months later, the FBI came knocking, loudly.
FBI Boston Special Agent in Charge Ted E. Docks did not hold back. In a Department of Justice press release, Docks said:
"The FBI arrested Mayor Brian DePeña for allegedly cashing in on a public health crisis and blatantly defrauding a government program meant to keep businesses afloat during the pandemic."
Docks added a warning aimed well beyond Lawrence.
"When elected officials misuse federal funds for personal gain, they're breaking the trust of their constituents, and breaking the law. 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. She accused DePeña of betraying the trust of Lawrence residents and said the arrest demonstrated that prosecutors would pursue alleged fraud "even [by] public officials." Fox News carried her full statement, in which she was more pointed:
"Mayor DePeña 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."
IRS Criminal Investigation Special Agent in Charge Thomas Demeo, quoted by Fox News, framed the alleged conduct in the context of what the CARES Act was designed to do, and what DePeña allegedly turned it into:
"CARES Act funds were created to help small businesses survive an unprecedented national crisis, not to bankroll personal debts, political ambitions, or real estate ventures."
The pattern of public officials exploiting pandemic-era programs is not new. A Minnesota woman at the center of the Feeding Our Future fraud scandal was sentenced to 41 years in federal prison earlier this year for orchestrating what prosecutors called the largest COVID-era fraud scheme in the country. DePeña's alleged conduct is smaller in dollar terms but follows the same blueprint: exploit emergency money, spend it on yourself, and hope nobody checks.
Outside the Boston courthouse on August 14, defense attorney Carlos Apostle rejected any suggestion that his client would step down. When asked whether DePeña planned to resign, Apostle told reporters simply: "No, he's done a great job in Lawrence."
DePeña himself did not comment publicly. The Associated Press reported that when asked whether he would resign, DePeña responded only with "God bless." He did not return requests for further comment.
If convicted, DePeña faces up to 20 years in federal prison on the wire fraud charge and up to 10 years on the money laundering charge, along with possible fines and supervised release. For now, he remains free under the conditions set by the court, passport surrendered, movements restricted to Massachusetts, and barred from seeking any new loans without a judge's approval.
DePeña is a dual citizen of the United States and the Dominican Republic. The passport surrender requirement appears designed to address flight risk, though the court's reasoning was not detailed in available reporting.
The DePeña case lands at a moment when federal investigators appear increasingly willing to pursue elected officials who treated pandemic relief programs as open vaults. The SBA's disaster loan program disbursed billions during COVID-19 with minimal upfront verification, and the fraud cases that followed have stretched across party lines and levels of government. But the recurring theme, officials who were supposed to serve their communities choosing instead to serve themselves, carries a particular sting for voters who trusted them.
Lawrence is a working-class city north of Boston, home to roughly 90,000 residents. Its taxpayers are now represented by a mayor under federal indictment who allegedly used emergency funds meant for struggling businesses to pay his own tax bills, cover his own mortgages, and finance his own political career. The growing list of Democratic officials facing serious federal legal scrutiny only sharpens the question of whether the party's leadership has any mechanism for accountability before the FBI shows up.
Federal prosecutors have made clear they intend to keep pulling on this thread. Foley's office signaled that no title, not even mayor, provides cover when the evidence points to fraud. And the broader pattern of government officials facing consequences for alleged abuses of their positions suggests the enforcement pipeline is far from empty.
Several questions remain unanswered. How did the SBA approve repeated increases to DePeña's loan without flagging the diversions? What is the current status of Tenares Tire Services? And will Lawrence's city government take any action of its own, or will it wait for the federal courts to decide the mayor's fate?
DePeña's attorney says his client has done a great job in Lawrence. Federal prosecutors say he did a great job helping himself to $1.5 million that wasn't his. The people of Lawrence, the ones the money was supposed to help, will have to decide which version they believe. But the credibility of elected officials who claim innocence while the evidence piles up is not exactly a growth stock these days.
Emergency programs exist because real people face real crises. When the people in charge loot those programs to fund their own ambitions, the cost isn't just financial, it's the next disaster, when the public has every reason not to trust that the help will reach them.