Boston Official’s Alleged Embezzlement Involved Taking Cash In City Hall Bathroom

FBI agents arrested a Democratic Boston official Friday morning on federal corruption charges, citing an alleged “kickback scheme” to steal thousands of taxpayer dollars from her own constituents.

Tania Fernandes Anderson, who is serving in her second term as city councilor for Boston’s Seventh District, was indicted on one count of theft regarding programs receiving federal dollars and five counts of wire fraud, according to the Department of Justice’s indictment unsealed Friday.

Prosecutors allege that Fernandes Anderson, facing financial challenges last year following a state ethics commission’s decision to fine her $5,000 for violating a conflict of interest law, conspired with an unnamed relative on her staff in an alleged bonus kickback scheme to defraud the city of Boston. Fernandes Anderson allegedly paid her relative a $13,000 bonus — more than twice as large as the bonuses given to all of her other staff combined — who then slipped $7,000 in cash of that bonus to Fernandes Anderson during a secret exchange in a city hall bathroom on June 9, 2023, according to the DOJ’s indictment.

“Using public office for personal gain is a crime. Her behavior, as alleged in today’s indictment, is a slap in the face to the hardworking taxpayers in the city of Boston who have every right to expect that the city’s funds are in good and honest hands,” Jodi Cohen, special agent in charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Division, said in a press release following Fernandes Anderson’s arrest. “This case illustrates how the FBI, and our partners are working hard every day to battle public corruption and the corrosive damage it does to people’s faith in government.”

Each count of wire fraud carries a maximum 20 year prison sentence and the count for “theft concerning programs receiving federal funds” provides for a maximum sentence of 10 years, according to the press release.

Fernandes Anderson, who moved with her family to the United States as an undocumented immigrant from the African country of Cape Verde when she was ten years old, frequently courted controversy while serving on the Boston City Council. Less than two weeks after Hamas’ invasion of Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, she compared Israeli soldiers to “political animals.”

“What the f— do I have to do in this f—ing council in order to get respect as a black woman,” Fernandes Anderson shouted during a council meeting in a tirade that went viral on social media in August 2022.

Democratic Boston Mayor Michelle Wu called on Fernandes Anderson to resign following the DOJ’s indictment.

“Like any member of the community, Councilor Fernandes Anderson has the right to a fair legal process,” Wu said in a statement. “But the serious nature of these charges undermine the public trust and will prevent her from effectively serving the city.”

Fernandes Anderson was previously fined by the Massachusetts State Ethics Commission between March and May 2023 following the body’s findings that the Boston city council member violated a conflict of interest law by hiring her sister as her office’s director of constituent services and her son as office manager.