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THE MALDEN ADVOCATE–Friday, September 13, 2024 Page 17 Serial violent robber sentenced to over six years in prison for robbing multiple spas at gunpoint Defendant beat and ducttaped victims A ccording to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Offi ce, District of Massachusetts, a Malden, Mass., man, Li Wen Tang, 33,was sentenced on September 3, 2024, in Boston federal court for his role in the armed robberies of two businesses in which he and two others beat and duct-taped victims. He was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton to 78 months in prison and three years of supervised release. In April 2024, Tang pled guilty to two counts of robbery aff ecting commerce after a jury convicted one of Tang’s co-defendants, Alfeu Barbosa, in March 2024 for the same off enses. Barbosa was arrested and charged in June 2022. Tang and Jonas Nunez were later arrested and charged in August and September 2022. All three defendants were subsequently indicted by a federal grand jury. On June 12, 2022, at approximately 8:51 p.m., Tang entered the Balance Refl exology Spa in Brookline pretending to be a customer seeking a massage. Because the victim was the only employee in the spa that night, she locked the door before taking Tang into the back room to begin the massage. Tang asked the victim if there was anyone else in the spa and that if there was, he would like to see them. Almost immediately after the massage had begun, Tang claimed that he no longer wanted a massage because his stomach was upset and demanded a refund. The victim employee stated she had to call her boss to approve the refund. While the victim employee was on the phone in the lobby, Tang unlocked the front door and two masked men – later identifi ed as Barbosa and Nunez – entered the business carrying fi rearms. One of the men hit the victim employee in the face, knocking her to the fl oor, and put a gun to her head. Barbosa and Nunez then pulled the victim by her hair into the back hallway, where they instructed her to be quiet. There, the men proceeded to bind the victim’s wrists and ankles with duct tape and gag her. As they were doing this, Barbosa and Nunez repeatedly yelled at the victim asking, “Where is the money?” The men ransacked ~ Op-Ed ~ Fair Share Amendment is Working as Intended By State Senator Jason Lewis and State Representative Jim O’Day L ess than two years after voters approved the Fair Share Amendment to the Massachusetts constitution, the “millionaire’s tax” is already having a positive impact on Massachusetts. Our state now has a fairer tax system, and we are making transformative investments in education and transportation that are improving residents’ lives. From 2015 to 2022, we were Gray duct-tape on floor (Courtesy photo) the spa for roughly three minutes before locating and stealing approximately $500 along with the victim employee’s cell phone and then exiting. Surveillance footage revealed that all three men had arrived in the same vehicle parked nearby, which they drove away in together following the robbery. Later on the evening of June 12, Barbosa, Nunez and an associate of Barbosa committed a similar robbery of May’s Spa Massage in Stoneham. Specifi - cally, they entered the business wearing masks and firearms and duct-taped several victims who were in the spa. In addition to stealing approximately $600 in cash from the business and victims, Barbosa, Nunez and Barbosa’s associate took three cell phones belonging to three of the female victims present during the robbery, as well as a victim’s license, gift cards and credit and debit cards, before leaving in the same vehicle. Nunez pled guilty and was sentenced on April 18, 2024, to 23 months in prison to be followed by three years of supervised release. Barbosa was convicted by a federal jury and sentenced on July 17, 2024, to 121 months in prison to be followed three years of supervised release. Acting U.S. Attorney Joshua S. Levy and the FBI’s Special Agent in Charge of the Boston Division, Jodi Cohen, made the sentencing announcement. Valuable assistance was provided by the FBI in New York and the Massachusetts State Police, as well as the Brookline, Stoneham, Boston, Wakefield and New York City Police Departments. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Luke A. Goldworm and Robert E. Richardson of the Major Crimes Unit prosecuted the case. proud to be the lead legislative sponsors of the Fair Share Amendment, the constitutional amendment to establish a new 4% surtax on annual incomes exceeding one million dollars, with the revenue dedicated to funding our public schools, colleges, roads, bridges, and public transit. Working alongside the Raise Up Massachusetts coalition of community organizations, faithbased groups, and labor unions, we helped shepherd the amendment through four legislative votes and onto the November 2022 ballot. The Fair Share Amendment was designed to address two related problems: our unfair tax system, and years of inadequate investment in public education and critical transportation infrastructure. We’re already making great progress on both counts. Before Fair Share was passed, the richest one percent of Massachusetts residents paid a lower portion of their income in state and local taxes than did lowerand middle-income taxpayers. But the new Fair Share tax closes most of that gap, with the state’s highest-income residents now paying closer to the same share of their income that the rest of us pay. And because the tax is only applied to the portion of a taxpayer’s annual income that is over $1 million (with that threshold increased annually for infl ation), most of the revenue raised comes from those making more than $5 million – the richest of the rich. As a result, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, Massachusetts is now the seventh most “progressive” state tax system in the country, moving up 10 spots from before voters approved the Fair Share Amendment. While the ultra-rich are paying a little bit more, the Fair Share Amendment is making Massachusetts more aff ordable for everyone else. Since last year, money from Fair Share has enabled every public K-12 student in the state access to free breakfast and lunch at school. Families are saving $1,200 a year per child due to free school meals, and the number of students who are eating a healthy school breakfast and lunch has increased by 24.5% and 16%, respectively. Starting this fall, Fair Share will fund free community college for every student in Massachusetts, covering both tuition and fees as well as a $1,200 stipend for students whose income is less than 125% of the state median to help pay for books and other expenses. We’ve also increased fi nancial aid signifi cantly for students at our public colleges and universities, and campuses are already seeing higher enrollment as a result. At the MBTA, Fair Share is funding hundreds of millions of dollars in much-needed infrastructure improvements, including station and accessibility upgrades, bridge repairs, subway track and signal improvements, and commuter rail projects. And for low-income T riders, the tax now funds a reduced fare program to lower the cost of commuting. For bus riders in other parts of the state, Fair Share is supporting the largest-ever investment in regional transit authorities, allowing them to expand service, eliminate fares, and add new routes. And the new tax has already generated record funding to local cities and towns for road and bridge repairs, so that municipalities can repave more miles each year. Finally, the Fair Share Amendment is supporting record investments in early education and child care, from expanding universal preK to thousands of children in Gateway Cities and rural communities, to providing grants to child care providers so they can serve more children and raise the wages of their educators without hiking tuitions for families. These investments funded by Fair Share are making Massachusetts more aff ordable and equitable for working families and are supporting two key building blocks of a competitive economy: a well-educated workforce and a reliable transportation system. During the years it took to pass the Fair Share Amendment, opponents claimed there would be dire consequences, from millionaires fl eeing the state to tax revenues plummeting. But nearly two years after the Amendment’s passage, those claims are proving to be false. The state collected $2.2 billion in Fair Share revenue during its fi rst full year of implementation, far surpassing the projected amount of $1 billion. And there is no evidence of substantial millionaire fl ight beyond the usual number of retirees who leave each year. In fact, Massachusetts’ population grew in 2023, the fi rst year the Fair Share Amendment was in eff ect, after declining in 2022. With the Fair Share Amendment, Massachusetts asked the state’s wealthiest residents to pay a little more to make much-needed investments in education and transportation. Not even two years later, Fair Share is working as intended, and we’re all better off as a result. Mayors across Massachusetts Urge NO Vote on Question 5 Bipartisan group comes together to protect servers, bartenders and neighborhood restaurants put as risk by ill-conceived ballot question B oston, MA – The Committee to Protect Tips released the first round of Mayors endorsing a No on 5 vote on this November’s ballot. This bipartisan group of Mayors represent every corner of Massachusetts, thousands of neighborhood restaurants, servers, bartenders and other tipped employees. “The more Mayors learn about the impacts Question 5 will have on their communities, the more they join NO on 5,” said Chris Keohan, spokesperson for the Committee to ProVOTE | SEE PAGE 18

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