Former Indian American Congressional candidate indicted

Abhijit “Beej” Das faces five years in prison, $250,000 fine for alleged Election Campaign Act violations

Abhijit “Beej” Das, a former Indian American candidate for the US House of Representatives in the 3rd Congressional District of Massachusetts has been indicted on charges of violating the Federal Election Campaign Act and false statements.

Das, 47, of North Andover, was indicted on one count of accepting excessive campaign contributions, one count of conduit contributions, one count of conversion of campaign funds, one count of engaging in a scheme to falsify, conceal, and cover up material facts and two counts of making a false statement.

Das was arrested on June 30 and was set make his initial appearance before US District Court Magistrate Judge Jennifer C. Boal, according to a Justice Department press release.

READ: I am one of the most qualified candidates in the race: Indian American congressional hopeful Beej Das (September 3, 2018)

Each of the charges provide for a sentence of up to five years in prison, three years of supervised release and fine of $250,000, or twice the gross gain or loss, whichever is greater.

“Das allegedly solicited illegal campaign donations, used the money for his own business expenses and debts, and then attempted to conceal his actions,” said Nathaniel R. Mendell, Acting US Attorney for the District of Massachusetts.

“We are committed to prosecuting this kind of criminal conduct, because doing so protects the election process and vindicates every voter’s right to law-abiding campaigns and transparent elections.”

According to the indictment, Das who was a Congressional candidate in the 2017-2018 election devised a scheme in or about December 2017 to solicit personal loans from friends and close associates in excess of the legal limit to overcome a fundraising deficit.

Around Dec 17, 2017, Das allegedly emailed a contributor asking for a friend to support his campaign to reach a specific fundraising goal of over $450,000 by the end of the year and indicated that reaching that goal might need “some engineering.”

Das allegedly advised a member of his campaign that he would “aggregate” the loans into “one batch” and execute a main transfer into the campaign account.

Das caused three different individuals to contribute approximately $125,000 to his campaign and structured the contributions as personal loans to a family member to circumvent Federal Election Commission (FEC) reporting requirement and contribution limits, according to the indictment.

Das allegedly concealed the excessive campaign contributions from the FEC, falsely claimed that the funds from the excessive contributions were his own personal funds and engaged in illegal conduit contributions to his campaign.

In addition, the indictment also alleges that between January and May 2018, Das withdrew approximately $314,500 in funds from his campaign account and used at least $267,000 of these funds to pay outstanding debts for his hotel business relating to vendors, the hotel’s yacht and real estate taxes unrelated to his congressional campaign.

In making these withdrawals, Das allegedly sought to conceal his conversion of campaign funds by instructing bank tellers to report the withdrawals as separate withdrawal and deposit transactions, rather than direct transfers.

READ: Attorney and Former U.S. Congressional Candidate Indicted for Defrauding Clients of More Than $5 Million in Escrow Funds (June 26, 2023)

Das allegedly aided and abetted in the submission of false information in quarterly reports to the FEC by overstating the amount of cash-on-hand the Das-for-Congress Campaign had in its campaign bank account.

For example, on June 30, 2018, Das allegedly reported that his campaign’s total amount of cash-on-hand was approximately $440,000, when in fact the amount of cash-on-hand in the campaign bank account was less than $5,000.