Former Massachusetts officer sentenced for bank fraud, NFA violations

BOSTON (WWLP) – A former Massachusetts police officer was sentenced in Boston federal court Wednesday after pleading guilty to charges of bank fraud and violations of the National Firearms Act (NFA).

In October 2022, 39-year-old Daniel Whitman of Salisbury pleaded guilty to the following:

• 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 National Firearms Act (NFA)
• One count of making a firearm in violation of the NFA
• One count of transferring a firearm in violation of the NFA

He was sentenced to one year and one day in prison with two years of supervised release. Whitman is a former police officer in Tyngsborough and the owner of Hitman Firearms LLC, a retail gun shop in Tyngsborough.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s office, Whitman created Freedom Alley Shooting Sports LLC as a large indoor shooting range that would serve regional and international customers. Whitman and his co-conspirator, Bin Lu, brought a Chinese investor that contributed several million dollars to Freedom Alley in exchange for an large interest in the company. While applying for loans from federally insured banks to help pay for the construction of Freedom Alley, Whitman hid the true source of the funding from the banks and filed false documents for the loan application.

Whitman also knowingly made, possessed and transferred modified firearms classified as short-barreled rifles (SBR), which were not properly registered with the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record, required by the NFA.

In June 2021, his co-conspirator, Lu, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud and one count of possession of an unregistered firearm. He is still awaiting sentencing.

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