Democrat Lists Convict Wife as Fundraiser Host

She'll no doubt be there in spirit.

With his wife still under house arrest until August, U.S. Rep. John F. Tierney will be going stag to Friday night’s major Women Taking the Lead for Tierney fund-raiser, spokesmen for the couple confirmed yesterday.

Patrice Tierney is listed on the host committee of the annual $100-a-plate cocktail party to take place at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Danvers. But Jennifer Flagg, spokesman for the Salem Democrat’s convict wife, told the Herald, “Mrs. Tierney is definitely not attending the event.

“She wouldn’t do anything to step out of the terms of her probation.”

Michael Goldman, a spokesman for John Tierney, 59, said the congressman will attend, and the nod to his wife of 14 years was strictly a formality.

Patrice Tierney, 60, pleaded guilty in January to aiding and abetting the filing of false tax returns by her brother, Robert Eremian, a fugitive from federal charges of racketeering, illegal gambling, money laundering and witness tampering.

The petite jewelry designer completed a monthlong prison stretch on March 15 and is now on two years’ supervised release — the first five months of which she’s confined to her home, though not on a GPS bracelet.

How is this this crook got only 30 days for tax fraud? Oh, she's married to a Democrat Congressman. Never mind.

Law enforcement officials said Tierney's brother, Robert Eremian, ran a large-scale illegal gambling business in the United States from the early 1980s through the beginning of 2010. State Police raided his Lynnfield office in 1996, leading Eremian to move the business's headquarters to Antigua, but the business continued underground in Massachusetts, Assistant US attorney Fred M. Wyshak Jr. told the court in October.

Patrice Tierney began overseeing her brother's Massachusetts affairs after he returned to Antigua. Between 2003 and 2009, prosecutors charged, she managed a banking account that collected more than $7 million in illegal gambling profits. Over that time, prosecutors allege, Patrice Tierney paid bills for his three children and their ailing mother, balanced the account, and provided information to his tax preparer, resulting in false tax filings, prosecutors said.

Young also ordered Tierney to cooperate with the IRS and provide all the necessary financial information to determine the tax liabilities of her brother.