BOSTON — The sister of disgraced former Republican state Sen. Dean Tran pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice charges for trying to cover up a sham job offer to her brother to help him fraudulently reinstate his unemployment benefits and later lying to a grand jury about it.

The Massachusetts U.S. Attorney’s Office says Tuyet T. Martin, 56, who lives in Pelham, NH, admitted on Wednesday in federal court to providing her brother Tran with the sham job offer for a position at the New Hampshire-based food company, Alecon Enterprises, Inc., which she owns and ran as CEO.

FBI agents uncovered the fake job offer while investigating Tran’s unemployment and tax fraud schemes.

“The charges against Dean Tran and his sister represent a serious breach of public trust,” said then-Acting United States Attorney Joshua Levy after the charges against Martin were announced back in June of 2024.

“Their alleged calculated effort to defraud the government and deceive federal investigators demonstrate a disturbing disregard for the law. Our office remains committed to uncovering and prosecuting fraud and corruption, as this case makes clear,” he said.

The FBI asked Tran about a letter from Martin offering him the fake job that he provided to unemployment agency officials while he attempted to get his unemployment benefits reinstated after they had been suspended. Martin also admits to lying about the job offer while testifying in a July 2023 grand jury session.

Tran was arrested and charged in November 2023 on a 28-count federal indictment for fraudulently collecting Pandemic Unemployment Assistance benefits while also withholding rental and consulting income from his tax returns in 2020, 2021 and 2022. He pleaded guilty last month and is scheduled for sentencing on Jan. 30.

The disgraced former lawmaker began fraudulently receiving pandemic unemployment payments after his state Senate term ended in 2021, collecting over $30,000 in benefits while he was working as a consultant at a New Hampshire-based auto parts retailer, the Automotive Parts Company. Tran also withheld nearly $55,000 in consulting income from the company in his 2021 federal income tax return, while also withholding thousands of dollars from the IRS that he made in rent collections from a Fitchburg property he owns between 2020 and 2022.

“Tran made material misrepresentations to the federal law enforcement agents about the letter, including that his sister and co-defendant, Tuyet Martin, had authored the letter when she was not the sole author of the letter and Tran had revised it before it was finalized and submitted to unemployment officials,” the U.S. Attorney’s office said in a press release following Tran’s guilty plea. “Tran also told federal law enforcement agents that his sister’s signature appeared on the letter when in fact Tran had signed the letter, not his sister.”

Tran is currently in the middle of an 18-month prison sentence for his 2024 conviction on the 23 felony counts of tax and COVID benefits fraud. He admitted to the fake job offer scam involving his sister back in June. Tran was also sentenced to two years of supervised release following his scheduled release from prison later this year. In addition, Tran must repay $25,100 to the Massachusetts Department of Unemployment Assistance, another $23,327 to the IRS along with a $7,500 fine and a mandatory assessment of $2,300.

In June, Tran pleaded guilty to three state charges of stealing a gun from an elderly person who was also one of his constituents, then misleading investigators.

Martin faces up to 20 years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of $250,000. Sentencing has been set for May 13.

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