Tran, in an interview, described the campaign tactic as a "a dirty, malicious character assassination against me and my family that should have nothing to do with the campaign or the issues of the day."
His relationship with Nguyen began, he said, sometime before 2003.
Tran, a former Eagle Scout, was in the midst of his first Assembly campaign. Nguyen, court records show, was in at least the second year as a target of an investigation involving eight law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, Livermore police, the California Department of Insurance Fraud Division and the Sacramento district attorney.
Investigators said they used undercover agents to show that the criminal ring would recruit people involved in a traffic accident and coach them on how to file fraudulent insurance claims.
Nguyen's role, they said, was to craft a false statement that could win an insurance payout.
After charging Nguyen with nine felonies and three misdemeanors, the Sacramento district attorney agreed to allow her to plead no contest to the three lesser charges in 2004.
The same year, the couple married, and Tran began his first term in Sacramento.
As recently as this year, however, her services at the paralegal office were advertised in the Chinese Consumer Yellow Pages website. She was listed as "Xinh Cyndi Nguyen, Attorney at Law," although she is not a lawyer.
Tran, 41, said Nguyen, 31, did not know how she came to be listed as an attorney. "They can put anything on the Internet," he said.
Nguyen would not consent to an interview, Tran said, because she was offended that her criminal record was gaining attention.
The operators of the online directory, however, said that the person listed would have provided the title. It is a misdemeanor to purposely misrepresent oneself as an attorney.
Meanwhile, Tran's legislative website chronicles his special initiative showcasing methods that senior citizens can use to avoid insurance scams.
The occasional seminars, dubbed "Scam Stoppers," are advertised as an opportunity to "learn from the experts on how to empower yourself against scams."
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Times staff writer Sara Lin contributed to this report.
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