A former attorney was sentenced for trying to bribe a Medford chief of police to get a company’s cannabis business license approved.
Sean O’Donovan of Somerville was arrested in 2022 over what prosecutors called a “pay-to-play scheme”. They say O’donovan tried to pay $25,000 to the chief of police who considered applications for cannabis business licenses.
Now he’ll have to pay a total of $150,000 for his crime plus serving 2 years in prison.
“Driven by greed, Mr. O’Donovan tried his hand at an old school bribery scheme in which he tried to bribe a police chief for the sake of lining his own pockets. Fortunately, his attempt was promptly thwarted by the integrity of the Police Chief he targeted, as he immediately reported him to federal authorities,” said Acting United States Attorney Joshua S. Levy. “Our office remains committed to rooting out corruption in public offices. Today’s sentence should serve as a warning to anyone who thinks they can corrupt government officials for personal gain: your conduct will be uncovered and will land you in federal prison – regardless of who you are.”
Read more at wwlp.com