The U.S. Attorney's office for Massachusetts said Friday that Joyce, a Democrat from Milton, had been charged in a 104-page federal indictment. That document accuses Joyce of accepting "a stream of concealed bribes and kickbacks" in exchange for his influence or actions.
"Joyce's objective in conducting and participating in the affairs of the Senate Office enterprise was to secretly profit from his position as State Senator," the indictment said.
The U.S. Attorney's office said the payments Joyce accepted included a Jeep and "hundreds of pounds of free coffee."
The indictment also said that Joyce utilized a shell company to launder the money from his schemes.
Joyce's law office in Canton was raided by the FBI in February 2016 in what was then described as "court-authorized activity in connection with an ongoing federal investigation." His lawyer at the time, Howard Cooper, said Joyce was cooperating and believed he had done nothing wrong.
It was not clear if the charges were related to the raid or past calls for an ethics probe on Beacon Hill.
The lawyer did not immediately return messages seeking comment.
The U.S. Attorney's office scheduled a news conference for approximately 10:30 a.m. Friday.
Joyce, who had served as assistant majority leader, said shortly after the investigation was announced last year that he would not seek re-election to the Senate. He had represented his district since 1998.
In 2015, then-Senate President Stan Rosenberg asked the state Ethics Commission to review Joyce's conduct after The Boston Globe reported on potential conflicts of interest focusing on whether he used his position to boost his law practice.
Republican Gov. Charlie Baker also called for an ethics probe into a reported arrangement that let Joyce receive free dry cleaning from a local shop for more than a decade. The Globe said Joyce took his suits, his family's clothes and sometimes his aides' clothes to Woodlawn Cleaners after owner Jerry Richman offered to clean his clothes for free in 1997.
Joyce's attorneys said at the time he received the service in exchange for free or reduced-price legal services he provided to Richman.
In an unrelated case last year, Joyce agreed to pay nearly $5,000 to resolve issues raised by state campaign finance regulators, including using campaign funds for his son's 2014 high school graduation party. Joyce said there had been no finding of wrongdoing on his part.
The arrest is the second blow to the state Senate in the past week. Rosenberg announced Monday he was stepping aside as president of the chamber during a Senate Ethics Committee investigation into the circumstances surrounding reported sexual misconduct allegations by several men against his husband, Bryon Hefner.
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