Two former Massachusetts State Police troopers were convicted on Tuesday in connection to an overtime fraud scheme that dated back to 2015, according to federal prosecutors.
Former State Police Lt. Daniel Griffin and former Sgt. William Robertson were each convicted of one count of conspiracy, one count of theft concerning a federal program and four counts of wire fraud, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
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Both men are scheduled to be sentenced in March.
From 2015 to 2018, Griffin, 60, Robertson, 61, and others plotted to steal thousands of dollars in overtime pay for hours not worked and destroyed evidence, said prosecutors.
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Amid heightened scrutiny into the department, Griffin, Robertson and others shredded and burned records and forms related to the scheme, said prosecutors. Griffin also claimed to superiors that missing forms had been "inadvertently discarded or misplaced."
Griffin also spent "significant time" running a private security business called Knight Protection Services during regular and overtime work hours and hiding over $700,000 of revenue from that business from the IRS, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.
Before Tuesday's conviction, Griffin pleaded guilty on Nov. 27, 2023, to defrauding a private school attended by two of his children from at least 2016 to 2016, according to prosecutors. They said he hid his KnightPro income and filed materially misleading financial aid applications.
The 60-year-old obtained over $175,000 in financial aid from the school over several years, prosecutors said.
The wire fraud charge comes with a sentence of up to 20 years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of $250,000, the U.S. Attorney's Office said. They said the federal program fraud charge provides for a sentence of up to 10 years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of $250,000.
The conspiracy charge, said prosecutors, comes with a sentence of up to five years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of $250,000. 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, according to prosecutors.
