Boston City Councilor Arrested on Corruption Charges

The FBI arrested far-left Boston City Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson on Friday on corruption charges for allegedly funneling taxpayer funds into her private accounts, following an already controversial career.

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“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. 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,” said FBI Special Agent Jodi Cohen.

The federal indictment accused Anderson, the first practicing Muslim to serve on the council, of making an illegal agreement with one of her staff members to give him a generous pay bonus if he agreed to give most of that money back to her.

The unnamed staff member reportedly signed a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) with Anderson and gave her $7,000 of the bonus.

The bonus check, including a $13,000 bonus and weekly salary, amounted to $10,204 after taxes.

The $13,000 bonus amounted to more than double the bonuses of all the other members of Anderson’s staff combined.

The staff member reportedly made three separate cash withdrawals to retrieve the funds to be paid to Anderson.

According to text messages included in the indictment, the staff member allegedly transferred a large amount of cash to Anderson in the bathroom of City Hall.

The federal indictment claims that the staff member was a member of Anderson’s family, a fact she denied in an email to a city employee when discussing the hiring.

The indictment claims that Anderson was under financial strain when she allegedly concocted the scheme, owing months of rent and car payments, on top of an impending $5,000 civil penalty from the state’s Ethics Commission.

She allegedly attempted to avoid the suspicion of her other staff by claiming her accomplice was receiving the massive bonus due to prior volunteer work.

Anderson faces charges of wire fraud, which carries a potential 20-year prison sentence and a $250,000 fine, and theft concerning programs receiving federal funds, which carries a possible 10-year sentence and a $250,000 fine.

The indictment did not make clear whether Anderson’s alleged accomplice will face any criminal charges for his involvement in the scheme, and his name was redacted from publicly released records.

Anderson became a citizen in 2019 after illegally emigrating from the African island of Cape Verde with her uncle at 10 years old and has courted controversy since first becoming a city councilor in 2021.

A 2022 clip shows Anderson standing up in the city council chamber, shouting and swearing about her status as a Black woman while slamming her fist on the table.

“What the F–k do I have to do in this F—ing council in order to et respect as a black woman,” she said.

That was far from her most controversial incident, however.

Anderson, married to currently incarcerated convicted murderer Tanzerious Anderson, drew criticism in 2022 for putting forward a resolution to establish a citywide “Hijab Day.”

The “Hijab Day” was set to coincide with the death of Iranian woman Mahsa Amini, who was arrested by the Islamic nation’s “morality police” for failing to wear a hijab in a manner consistent with their strict standards.

The resolution drew international backlash from people who did not appreciate commemorating the death of a woman who refused to comply with strict hijab laws on a “Hijab Day.”

She also caused backlash last year when, in the wake of Hamas’ terror attack on Israel, she referred to the operation that targeted Israeli civilians as a “military operation” rather than a terrorist attack.

The recent arrest isn’t even Anderson’s first run-in with the law since she took office.

Last July, she admitted to hiring both her sister and her son to her staff and giving them generous salaries and bonuses, violating the city’s conflict of interest laws prohibiting her from dealing with matters relating to immediate family members in her official capacity.

That led to a $5,000 civil penalty but was not a cause for her removal from the city council.