Michael E. McLaughlin today is expected to learn whether he will be imprisoned for falsely underreporting his salary by hundreds of thousands of dollars while serving as executive director of the Chelsea Housing Authority.
McLaughlin has pleaded guilty to deliberately underreporting his income to regulators for four years and will be sentenced this morning by US District Court Judge Douglas P. Woodlock, who has already balked at the recommendations of the defense and prosecution alike.
McLaughlin, 67, has argued that he should not go to prison because, as his lawyer has pointed out, he has no criminal record and is “irreplaceable†in the care of his bedridden wife, who has Alzheimer’s-like symptoms and cannot be left alone.
In recommending prison time, however, US Attorney Carmen Ortiz’s office has pointed out that McLaughlin traveled extensively, often with his close friend Linda Thibodeau, during his tenure as Chelsea housing director, leaving his wife in Massachusetts.
McLaughlin’s lawyer, Thomas M. Hoopes, declined to comment on the sentencing controversy.
The Globe reported today that the US Department of Housing and Urban Development is challenging the legitimacy of about $175,000 in expenditures McLaughlin and Thibodeau racked up between 2005 and November 2011, when McLaughlin was forced to resign after the size of his $360,000 annual salary was disclosed.
Follow Globe reporter Sean P. Murphy from the courtroom @spmurphyboston.
A pro bono lawyer for the Chelsea Housing Authority has calculated that McLaughlin’s attempt to conceal his salary would have resulted in an extra $889,728 in pension payments if McLaughlin’s deception had not been discovered.
HUD is negotiating with the Chelsea Housing Authority to recover not only the $711,392 in program funds outlined in its May 22 letter but also millions in apartment modernization funds. HUD has informed the housing agency that it is considering recouping as much as $7 million, the amount HUD paid to the authority between 2002 and 2009 to upgrade apartments but which the agency spent on everyday expenses and higher salaries for McLaughlin and key lieutenants.
Sean P. Murphy can be reached at smurphy@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @spmurphyboston.
