Westford Man Sentenced for Bank Fraud and Possessing an Unregistered Firearm

BOSTON – A Westford man was sentenced today in federal court in Boston for conspiring to commit bank fraud and possessing an unregistered short-barreled rifle. 

Bin Lu, 51, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge George A. O’Toole Jr. to one year of supervised release. In June 2021, Lu pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud and one count of possession of an unregistered firearm. Lu cooperated with the government’s investigation.

Lu was arrested and charged in January 2021 along with co-conspirator Daniel Whitman, a former police officer with the Tyngsborough Police Department and the owner of Hitman Firearms, LLC, a retail gun shop in Tyngsborough. 

Lu and Whitman created Freedom Alley Shooting Sports LLC, which they envisioned as a large indoor shooting range that would serve regional and international customers and offer shooting clinics and other services. Lu and Whitman brought in a Chinese investor who contributed several million dollars to Freedom Alley in exchange for a majority interest in the company. However, in applying for loans from federally insured financial institutions, Lu and Whitman hid the true source of their initial funding and the investor’s ownership interest from the banks, and filed false documents in connection with their loan applications.

Lu also possessed a short-barreled rifle that was not registered in the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record, as required by the National Firearms Act.

On March 22, 2023, Whitman was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Patti B. Saris to one year and one day in prison and two years of supervised release after previously pleading guilty to his role in the conspiracy. Whitman was also ordered to pay a $20,000 fine. 

United States Attorney Rachael S. Rollins; Michael J. Krol, Acting Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations in New England; Jonathan Davidson, Special Agent in Charge of U.S. Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service, Boston Field Office; Ketty Larco-Ward, Inspector in Charge of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service in Boston; James M. Ferguson, Special Agent in Charge of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives, Boston Field Division; and Joleen D. Simpson, Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigations in Boston made the announcement today. The Tyngsborough and Westford Police Departments provided valuable assistance in this case. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Evan D. Panich of Rollins’ Criminal Division and Eugenia M. Carris, Deputy Chief of Rollins’ Public Corruption & Special Prosecutions Unit prosecuted the case.