Congressman Tierney's wife to plead guilty to tax charges

In a lengthy statement tonight, Congressman Tierney defended his wife and said she was betrayed by her brother. He said she believed her brother’s earnings were from legitimate business, but is pleading guilty because she acknowledges she should have done more to investigate his activities.

‘‘She now realizes that the trust she formerly had in her brother was misplaced,’’ John Tierney said. ‘‘I stand by Patrice in this difficult time.’’

The news comes as Tierney is in the midst of a reelection campaign, just four weeks before voters go to the polls. The seven-term congressman has been favored against Republican challenger Bill Hudak, a first-time candidate and Boxford lawyer.

Boston attorney Donald K. Stern, who represents Patrice Tierney, said that under a plea agreement, prosecutors will recommend that she receive probation, with several months of home confinement.

But, Stern said, ‘‘I intend to urge the court to impose a sentence of straight probation.’’

Prosecutors allege that Eremian 57, moved an illegal gambling business from Lynnfield to Antigua in 1996 and deposited profits from his business, Sports Offshore, an Internet gambling site, into an account at Bank of America in Massachusetts.

Patrice Tierney is accused of managing some of Eremian’s ‘‘financial and family obligations’’ through the account and mischaracterizing deposits made as ‘‘commissions’’ in documents submitted to her brother’s tax preparer for the years 2004 through 2008.

From 2003 through 2009, Eremian funneled more than $7 million in illegal gambling proceeds into the account managed by his sister, while passing himself off as a consultant for Sports Offshore rather than its owner, prosecutors allege. He allegedly transferred funds from a shell company, Benevolence Funding Ltd., into the Massachusetts account.

Patrice Tierney ‘‘engaged in a conscious course of deliberate ignorance regarding the true nature of Eremian’s income and Eremian’s ownership of Sports Offshore,’’ according to a criminal information. The information, which details the charges, is a document that prosecutors file when someone agrees to a plea deal before evidence is presented to a grand jury.

In August, a federal grand jury in Boston indicted Eremian and his brother, Daniel Eremian, 60, of Boca Raton, Fla., on charges of racketeering, illegal gambling, and money laundering. Robert Eremian remains a fugitive.

In his statement tonight, Congressman Tierney said that when his wife’s brother Robert Eremian left the country in 2002, after pleading guilty to a federal tax evasion charge, he was given permission from the federal court and probation officials to travel abroad to pursue a career selling or licensing software to legal Internet gaming businesses.

Tierney said his wife disagreed with her brother’s decision to leave his family, but ‘‘agreed to care for their ailing mother and serve as a de facto second mother to his three teenage children.’’
He said that she agreed to pay her brother’s personal obligations, some family obligations, and tax payments from an account he funded.

Tierney said Eremian’s taxes were paid to the government, and the mistake Patrice Tierney made was listing his earnings as ‘‘commissions’’ rather than ‘‘illegal gambling.’’

‘‘While devastated to learn that her brother might have deceived her and so many others, Patrice has acknowledged and agreed that she should have done more to personally investigate the true nature of Mr. Eremian’s business activities in the course of carrying out his requests in paying his children’s household expenses, family medical bills, and his personal bills and taxes from a checking account in which he deposited funds,’’ Tierney said.

Tierney represents the Sixth District, which covers the North Shore and stretches from Saugus to Salisbury, and he has been active on foreign policy issues. He first won office in 1996, defeating Republican congressman Peter Torkildsen, and has won reelection by comfortable margins since.

Tierney and his wife, after dating throughout the 1996 campaign, married the next year, several months after he was sworn into office. It was her second marriage, his first. She has three children from her previous marriage.

It’s unclear whether the criminal case against his wife will have an impact on his reelection bid.

‘‘My guess is it has a modest effect,’’ said Paul Watanabe, a political science professor at the University of Massachusetts Boston. ‘‘For the few people in that race who have not decided between Tierney and Hudak, it might give them a little pause about voting for Tierney. However I don’t see it turning any Tierney supporters away from him.

‘‘Most voters can in fact separate the activities of family members, including spouses, from them,’’ Watanabe said.

Shelley Murphy can be reached at shmurphy@globe.com and Viser at Matt Viser at maviser@globe.com.