A former Massachusetts state senator was arrested Friday on charges he accepted about $1 million in bribes and kickbacks, laundered through his law firm, between 2010 and 2016, the Boston Globe reports. Part of those bribes and kickbacks? Hundreds of pounds of free Dunkin' Donuts coffee. Brian Joyce has been charged with more than 100 criminal counts, including federal charges of money laundering, corruption, mail fraud, and embezzlement. "Joyce's objective ... was to secretly profit from his position as State Senator," WBUR quotes the indictment as stating. Or, as FBI agent Harold Shaw puts it: "We believe Mr. Joyce was greedy, plain and simple."
As for the coffee-related part of Joyce's alleged schemes: The former Democratic senator is accused of receiving the coffee and more than $125,000 in fake legal fees from "major" Dunkin' Donuts franchisee Carlos Andrade. Joyce allegedly got 504 pounds of coffee worth more than $4,000 on just one occasion in 2015. CBS Boston reports prosecutors say the money and coffee was in exchange for unspecified legislative action beneficial to Andrade. Joyce allegedly told Andrade to tell the Ethics Commission that the coffee was in exchange for legal services. It's reported that Joyce gave pounds of coffee to his colleagues in the Senate while gunning for a Senate leadership position. Joyce has pleaded not guilty to all charges. (More Dunkin Donuts stories.)
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