Source: U.S. District Court
Former Boston city hall official John Lynch appealed for leniency as he faces sentencing this week for accepting a bribe to influence a city Zoning Board of Appeals vote.
“Mr. Lynch accepted payments totaling $60,000 from a real estate developer in exchange for his assistance in securing a permit the developer sought for a property, and failed to identify this money on his income tax returns. The property was undeveloped and the act did not victimize a particular person,” defense attorney Hank Brennan of Boston wrote in a filing submitted Friday in U.S. District Court.
Brennan asked the court to impose a 30-month sentence. Prosecutors are asking for 48 months.
Lynch pled guilty in September to taking a $50,000 bribe from an unnamed real estate developer to obtain an extension of a ZBA permit for a housing development, and another $10,000 from the same individual for assistance in the sale of another property that he failed to report on his income taxes.
Lynch resigned in August as assistant director of real estate for the Economic Development Industrial Corp. of Boston – part of the Boston Planning & Development Agency – and previously worked for 20 years in the city’s Department of Neighborhood Development.
In a sentencing memorandum requesting a 48-month sentence, federal prosecutors included a photo which appears to show Lynch leaning into a vehicle to accept a bundle of cash from an unidentified person.
“With a net worth of over a million dollars, owning luxury cars and homes in Boston and the Cape, this defendant did not steal out of need, but out of greed,” assistant U.S. Attorney Dustin Chao wrote in a court filing.
To support the request for the 48-month sentence, prosecutors cited the three-year prison sentence given to the late City Councilor Chuck Turner in 2011 for accepting a $1,000 bribe to help a nightclub obtain a liquor license.
“The gravity of the offense cannot be overstated. This case has shown that development in Boston was not being played on a level playing field,” Chao wrote. “That a mere $50,000 bribe could move the gears of government to favor a multimillion[-dollar] condominium project undermines the public’s confidence in its essential government institutions and erodes the public’s faith in its public stewards. The public is the victim in this case.”
Lynch also submitted letters of support from family members, as well as organizations and businesses citing his work helping them navigate the city’s permitting process and access government programs. A letter from the Boston Retirement Board stated that Lynch faces the loss of his pension.
