The feds grabbed Rep. Francisco Paulino’s passport after they arrested him last week on charges of stealing $700,000 in COVID welfare.
It was a prudent decision, given the Paulino family’s history of taking it on the lam back to their homeland, the Dominican Republic, while out on bail on federal fraud charges.
Just ask his younger sister, Luz, also known by her Bureau of Prison number 23105-509.
At deadline, we don’t have the results of the rep’s primary fight yesterday. But what if Francisco Paulino lost to the Lawrence city councilor running against him?
For the feds, it’s better not to take any chances on the cholo statesman vamoosing.
Let’s look at the history here. Sister Luz told the feds back in 2020 that she’d “lost” her passport. They were about to revoke her bail. Guess what, she “found” it and then used it in a new fraud. Then she fled and embarked on a worldwide 19-month tour.
Just to keep things straight, let’s identify both Paulinos, by the numbers.
There’s Francisco Paulino, age 46. Made $104,088.07 last year as a legislator.
Then there’s his sister Luz Paulino, age 43. Released from prison last March 20. Defrauded the IRS by filing 140 false tax returns. Also defrauded a bank and the Small Business Administration.
Ordered to pay $456,300 restitution to the SBA. Wired $395,000 to the Dominican Republic and bought a new Cadillac for $86,000, among other things.
Luz ran a tax-preparation service known as Agape Financial Services.
Her brother’s tax-preparation service is called Madison Tax.
And now the Dominican Democrat desperado is accused of basically the same crimes his sister has already served years in prison for, after her 19-month vacation in sunny places for shady people.
In Luz’s pre-sentencing memo to the judge, her public defenders (because of course none of them ever pay for anything) wrote:
“There is no question that Luz has made some bad decisions, including her choice to flee the country while these charges were pending.”
What’s her personal situation, you ask?
“Luz has been legally married to Jose Martinez for 21 years, but they have not been in a relationship for quite some time…. She also shares a daughter with Ricardo Jaime and two children with Pedro Perez.”
Perez was a police officer, according to the sentencing memo.
“Perez once showed up at Luz’s apartment with a chainsaw… He currently lives in the Virgin Islands because he is afraid of being arrested if he returns to the United States.”
Nice people, all of them. The Paulinos are just a typical Lawrence family, I guess you could say.
By the way, despite abandoning her three children for 19 months, she’s a “very devoted mother.” That’s what we taxpayers pay her lawyer to say, on her behalf, after stealing our money.
When Luz fled Massachusetts in April 2021, she had to make a living. So she began a new scam — filing for COVID welfare. While running her new scams, she was relaxing in, among other foreign resort destinations, Brazil, Colombia and the UAE.
She was finally re-arrested in Panama in November 2022.
That was two weeks after her brother was elected to his first term in the Massachusetts House.
By the way, both Paulinos claim they are victims of circumstances. Of course they are!
Luz’s lawyers: “Luz was not in her right mind when she participated in these schemes.”
Francisco himself, on a local podcast after making bail: “I believe I’m innocent. I look forward to my day in court. Thass my statement. Those charges may be the product of confusion.”
In 2024, after her re-arrest, and almost two years’ confinement at Wyatt Detention Center in Rhode Island, Luz pleaded guilty before Judge Richard Stearns.
He asked her about cashing a lot of the checks from the first flim-flam at a package store. It was recorded on security cameras. He asked her to confirm that. She answered in her best Lawrence Spanglish.
“That is me on the video. I did went to the liquor store and cashed that check.”
She did went to the liquor store. Si, senora.
It’s amazing how all these welfare scammers, alleged and convicted, can operate in Lawrence. They can barely speak English, and yet they stole (or at least are accused of stealing) millions. Think how much they could have purloined if they’d ever bothered to learn the language of their, uh, oppressors.
Luz, at least, tried to better herself in prison. Her sentencing memo included a list of all the “courses” she took at Wyatt, including several sessions of “English As a Second Language/US Citizenship Study.”
Mostly, though, Luz worked on hair styling. It’s a big industry in Lawrence, like fentanyl trafficking and welfare fraud.
Among Luz’s courses in prison:
“Braiding Techniques… Braiding with Extensions… Highlights Theory… Sew-In Extensions Theory & Hands-on…”
So now you have both the mayor of Lawrence and one of the city’s state reps accused of stealing COVID welfare money.
My question: are accusations of welfare fraud a resume enhancer or a detriment to a politician’s electoral prospects in the non-working-class ciudad of Lawrence?
I guess we’ll know when we get the election returns from last night.
Whatever happened at the polls yesterday, odds are that both Mayor Depena and Rep. Paulino are soon going to be saying “Adios” to Lawrence and “Buenos dios” to the Bureau of Prisons.
And they might want to ask which courses the rep’s sister recommends, other than “English As a Second Language,” of course.
There is one other course that she took, and no doubt learned much from in those dreary days behind bars:
“Adjustment to Incarceration.”
Let’s make it happen, feds, for the two Dominican-born Democrats. Just don’t give them back their passports.