Ex-cop Daniel Whitman pleads guilty to gun violations, bank fraud

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A former Tyngsborough police officer who was attempting to open a multimillion-dollar shooting range with foreign investments pleaded guilty to bank fraud and violations of the National Fire Arms Act on Thursday.

Daniel Whitman, a 37-year-old Salisbury man, was arrested in January 2021 and indicted by a grand jury in Boston federal court in June of that year on one count of bank fraud conspiracy, two counts of bank fraud, two counts of making false statements to a bank, one count of possession of an unregistered firearm, one count of conspiracy to violate provisions of the NFA, one count of making a firearm in violation of the NFA, and one count of transferring a firearm in violation of the NFA, according to U.S. Attorney Rachael Rollins’ office.

Whitman, who previously lived in Pelham, New Hampshire, owned Hitman Firearms, a gun shop in Tyngsborough. In the indictment filed against the former police officer, authorities claimed he and Ben Lu of Westford, an investor in the firearms store, sold and modified rifles in violation of the NFA and marketed training to customers, including some who were foreign nationals.

Lu pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud and one count of possession of an unregistered firearm in June 2021 and is scheduled to be sentence on Dec. 13. Whitman’s sentencing is scheduled for Jan. 27, 2023.

The bank fraud charges against Whitman carry up to a 30-year sentence with up to five years of supervised release and a $1 million fine. Additionally the NFA charges carry up to a 10-year sentence with up to three years of supervised release and a $10,000 fine.

The two business partners sought to build and own Freedom Alley Shooting Sports, a proposed multimillion-dollar shooting and training facility in Tyngsborough that would have served regional and international customers, offering shooting clinics and other services, according to a criminal affidavit written by Jarrod Pasciucco, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement special agent who’s assigned to Homeland Security Investigation’s Document and Benefit Fraud Task Force in Boston.

The federal investigation into the police officer began around February 2019. To fund Freedom Alley Shooting Sports (FASS), prosecutors said, Whitman and Lu sought and obtained funding from a married couple in China, who agreed to invest $6 million in the project in exchange for roughly 79% ownership interest in the company, leaving 21% split between the two business partners in Tyngsborough.

According to court records, Whitman and Lu applied for millions of dollars in bank loans from Lowell Five Bank and Avidia Bank, which were federally insured. They are also accused of seeking financing for the project through a loan from the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA).

However, SBA loans aren’t available in situations where more than 50% of a company is owned by a non-United States citizen, authorities noted. Both Lowell Five and Avidia also require that owners with a greater than 20% stake in a borrowing entity to submit personal financial statements and tax records to determine the borrower’s creditworthiness, among other criteria.

“Thus, the identity of the true owners of FASS and the source of the funds invested in the FASS project were both material to Lowell Five’s and Avidia’s loan decision-making process,” the indictment stated.

Both Whitman and Lu are accused of hiding the true source of their initial funding from the banks and filing false documents from 2016 to 2017 in connection with their loan applications, according to prosecutors.

“The principal object of the conspiracy was to engage in bank fraud,” the indictment said. “The principal purposed of the conspiracy was for Whitman and Lu to obtain millions of dollars in bank loans to pay for the construction of the FASS project in order to personally enrich Whitman, Lu and investors in FASS.”

Authorities claimed Whitman and Lu carried out the scheme by signing fraudulent documents regarding ownership interests in the gun range, concealing the true source of the funding for the project and making false statements and omissions in applications to obtain millions of dollars worth of construction loans.

In total, officials said, Whitman and Lu applied for $6.55 million from Lowell Five and $3.744 million from the SBA through the Bay Colony Development Corporation, which had partnered with Avidia. Under the name of a “sham owner,” the two business partners are also accused of submitting a false application to Avidia for a roughly $5.34 million business loan and a $250,000 short-term “bridge loan,” according to court documents.

The indictment claimed Whitman also knowingly “made, possessed and transferred” guns that had been modified by the addition of stocks and short barrels, resulting in their classification as short-barreled rifles (SBR) under the NFA. Officials noted the SBRs weren’t properly registered in the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record as mandated by the NFA, and Whitman didn’t pay the applicable taxes or fulfill other requirements under law.

According to court documents, Whitman, Lu and others used NFA guns to promote Hitman Firearms, FASS and their training camps on a YouTube channel called “Sig Shooter” that was run by Lu.

The YouTube channel as a whole appeared informational and promotional in nature, authorities claimed, with some of the videos trying to sell products and others appearing to target Chinese citizens who might be interested in coming to the United States for shooting camps run by Whitman and Lu. Many of the videos contained logos for FASS and Hitman Firearms.

Some of the videos include the use of a suppressor that was registered to the Groton Police Department. In the indictment, an ICE agent detailed how Whitman came to have the one of the police department’s suppressor in his possession, explaining that he was trying to land a contract with the department to supply it with new service weapons.

As a result, authorities accused Whitman of improperly marketing his business as an entity that could obtain and manufacture weapons that included suppressors, an attachment many police departments use for hearing protection and night sights, according to authorities.


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