Tisei urges Tierney to turn over any ill-gotten gains

Two days after a federal judge ordered a brother-in-law of U.S. Rep. John Tierney (D-Salem) to forfeit nearly $8 million made through an offshore gambling racket, Sixth District Republican candidate Richard Tisei called for Tierney to relinquish money his wife may have made as part of the scheme.”Patrice Tierney, by her own account, worked for her brother as a bookkeeper and received at least $223,000 in ‘gifts’ for her work in the criminal enterprise,” Tisei said. “Every dime of that money should be forfeited by the Tierneys – now.”Patrice Tierney pleaded guilty in October 2010 to four counts of aiding and abetting the filing of false tax returns related to her fugitive brother Robert Eremian.Prosecutors said she controlled a bank account for him that held more than $7 million in illegal gambling profits. Tierney has always denied knowing about the money.U.S. District Court Judge Patti Saris ordered Rep. Tierney’s brother-in-law Daniel Eremian to forfeit $7.7 million of criminally-obtained proceeds on Tuesday.Tisei called on Tierney to similarly forfeit the “full value of any and all gifts and income that the Tierneys received while Patrice Tierney worked for her brother,” according to a press release.Matt Robison, Tierney’s campaign manager, called Tisei’s statement “misleading,” and accused the Tisei campaign of attempting to equate her involvement with her brother Robert Eremian to that of Daniel Eremian, with whom Robison said she had no involvement.”They call her a bookkeeper – she was never charged with being a bookkeeper. It was never charged that she took anything illegally,” Robison said. “What Patrice was charged with was being blind to the fact that her brother Robert’s income was coming from illegal gambling. She had nothing to do with Danny.”Tisei has said before that he would “leave it up to the people” rather than bring up Patrice Tierney’s legal troubles during the campaign, and said in a report published in November that he would rather spend his time “talking about the issues that are confronting people in their daily lives.”Robert Eremian remains a fugitive, while Daniel Eremian is scheduled to be sentenced in federal court on June 28.Tierney called the stunt a “personal attack” on his wife in a statement to the Daily Item.”Patrice is a grandmother, mother and aunt who in caring for her nieces and nephews made an error in judgment,” he said. “She accepted full responsibility and has paid the price.”Tierney further noted that his wife “is not running for Congress” and said Tisei should not use her as “his personal punching bag.””It is clear that [Tisei] does not want this race to be about the issues that matter to the middle class, and that he is trying to distract voters from his support for this right-wing Congress,” Tierney said. “I hope that he returns to his previous position that he would make this race about the issues important to the people and not our individual family members.”Taylor Provost can be reached at [email protected].