Boston-based Black Lives Matter (BLM) activist Monica Cannon-Grant has been ordered by U.S. District Court Judge Angel Kelley—a Joe Biden appointee—to forfeit $224,063 to cover taxpayer dollars stolen through diverting donations from her nonprofit, collecting fraudulent pandemic unemployment benefits, and pocketing rental assistance.
The forfeiture ruling, issued last week, is in addition to the $106,000 restitution payment ordered when Cannon-Grant was sentenced this past January to probation, home detention, and community service with no prison time.
According to federal court filings, the forfeited amount includes approximately $181,000 in diverted donations from Violence in Boston Inc., the nonprofit she founded, over $33,000 in fraudulent pandemic unemployment benefits, and about $12,600 in rental assistance benefits. Federal prosecutors initially charged Cannon-Grant alongside her late husband Clark Grant in March 2022, detailing how the couple used the nonprofit’s funds and government assistance payments to finance expensive vacations and extravagant dinners.
The federal charges against Clark Grant were dropped following his death in a motorcycle accident in May 2023. Cannon-Grant pleaded guilty to an 18-count federal indictment in September 2025, and Judge Kelley initially sentenced her to probation, home detention, and community service without prison time.
Cannon-Grant founded Violence in Boston Inc. in 2017 and expanded the organization by 2020, becoming a prominent figure in Boston’s progressive circles. She was recognized as Bostonian of the Year by The Boston Globe and the city’s best social justice advocate by Boston Magazine. Cannon-Grant organized a protest with several thousand participants in Boston after the death of George Floyd.
Additionally, now-former far-left Boston City Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson, a former illegal immigrant from Cape Verde, was arrested in December 2024 on five counts of aiding and abetting wire fraud and theft from federally funded programs. She was found guilty and sentenced to one month in prison, three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $13,000 in restitution.
