July 17, 2025
A former Connecticut firefighter who pled guilty in relation to a West Haven COVID-19 relief fund scam says he should keep the pension he earned through 26 years of service in a neighboring city, arguing his crime bore no connection to his onetime employment and did not breach his union contract.
November 27, 2024
The insurer for the city of West Haven, Connecticut, will pay more than $1 million to offset losses caused by the theft of federal COVID-19 relief funds by a former state representative and city employee, according to a press release.
September 26, 2024
In a published opinion Thursday, a split panel of the Second Circuit upheld a Connecticut man's eight-year prison sentence for stealing federal COVID-19 relief funds from the city of West Haven through a conspiracy with a state representative, finding that the punishment was not "substantively unreasonable."
April 19, 2024
A three-judge panel of Second Circuit jurists seemed split Friday over whether a Connecticut man's eight-year prison sentence for stealing COVID-19 funds from the city of West Haven was too harsh, with one judge expressing skepticism and two hinting it was likely appropriate.
June 01, 2023
A former Connecticut state representative and city of West Haven employee has been sentenced to more than two years in prison for his role in schemes resulting in over $1.2 million in COVID relief and other funds being stolen from the city.
May 15, 2023
A former Connecticut state representative who pled guilty to conspiring to siphon pandemic relief funds earmarked for the city of West Haven asked a federal judge to allow him to travel out of state to escort his wife, a co-defendant, to a prison in Texas.
April 14, 2023
Former Connecticut state Rep. Michael DiMassa, who admitted to stealing COVID relief funds from the city of West Haven with several co-conspirators, cited his gambling addiction, a recent cancer diagnosis and the lingering pandemic in asking a federal judge not to send him to prison.
April 06, 2023
A Connecticut man convicted of working with two West Haven city employees to steal municipal COVID-19 relief funds will appeal the jury's verdict and his eight-year prison sentence, which was more than twice as long as federal guidelines indicated.
April 03, 2023
The main beneficiary of a fraud that ripped off more than $400,000 in COVID-19 relief funds from the city of West Haven, Connecticut, was sentenced Monday to 8 years in federal prison, significantly longer than the U.S. Sentencing Commission's guidelines would recommend for his convictions on substantive wire fraud and wire fraud conspiracy charges.
March 23, 2023
A second defendant was sentenced Thursday to spend six months behind bars and to pay more than $147,000 in restitution in a COVID-19 relief scam that defrauded hundreds of thousands of dollars from a Connecticut municipal government.