A former Connecticut state representative is scheduled to be sentenced Wednesday for stealing more than $1.2 million from the city of West Haven - most of it in federal coronavirus-related aid - and using a good chunk of it to fuel his gambling addiction.
, 32, a West Haven Democrat, could get more than four years in prison under federal sentencing guidelines. He is asking Judge Omar Williams for leniency.suffered from a debilitating gambling addiction at the time of the offense,” his lawyer, John Gulash, wrote in a court filing, “and his essentially unfettered access to a deep pool of federal funds and total lack of impulse control facilitated his precipitous downward spiral.
The lawyer compared DiMassa to Howard Ratner, the gambler played by Adam Sandler in the movie “Uncut Gems.” He said he bet on things as frivolous as how long the national anthem would take to perform at the Super Bowl, or what color Gatorade would be poured on the winning coach.At the time of the thefts, which began in mid-2020,was both a state representative and an aide to the West Haven City Council with authority to approve reimbursements for coronavirus-related expenses.
and a business partner, John Bernardo, also a former West Haven city employee, pilfered nearly $637,000, prosecutors said.In a second scheme,and another business owner, John Trasacco, conspired to submit fraudulent invoices from Trasacco’s companies to the city, netting nearly $432,000 in COVID-19 aid, with nearly all of it going to Trasacco. Trasacco was sentenced to eight years in prison in March after a jury convicted him of fraud.
The final conspiracy involved DiMassa and his wife, Lauren DiMassa, and the theft of nearly $148,000, authorities said. The couple submitted phony requests for payments by the city related to a youth violence prevention program. The pilfered funds were not federal coronavirus aid. Lauren DiMassa, who is pregnant with the couple’s second child, pleaded guilty last year and was sentenced in March to six months in prison. She recently reported to prison.Michael DiMassa“The defendant was a public official elected to serve his constituents,” prosecutors wrote in their sentencing documents. “Instead, he completely betrayed that trust by stealing public funds for his own benefit.
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