The former Massachusetts lawyer convicted of trying to bribe a Medford's chief of police to get a company's marijuana business license approved has been sentenced to two years in prison.
Sean O'Donovan was arrested in June 2022 over what prosecutors at the time called a "pay-to-play scheme" to pass along $25,000 to a person who considered applications for new marijuana establishments.
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O'Donovan was hired by the marijuana growing and sales company in 2018 to help get Medford's approval, prosecutors said, as the state began enacting marijuana legalization. The lawyer allegedly approached the police chief's relative with the $25,000 offer to speak to the official in February 2021, and the chief immediately told federal authorities about it.
The company, which was not named, didn't know about the scheme and rejected O'Donovan's proposal months later to hire the relative, according to prosecutors.
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"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," acting U.S. Attorney Joshua Levy said in a statement Wednesday. "Fortunately, his attempt was promptly thwarted by the integrity of the Police Chief he targeted, as he immediately reported him to federal authorities."
O'Donovan was convicted of wire fraud and bribery in October. He faces three years supervised release after his prison sentence and must pay a $150,000 fine, prosecutors said.
