A Boston activist with ties to Black Lives Matter faces two years behind bars after she pleaded guilty to swindling thousands of dollars from private donors and government officials to fund her lifestyle.
Monica Cannon-Grant, the founder and former CEO of nonprofit Violence in Boston, was convicted of several fraud charges Monday after prosecutors said she used the scammed money to pay for shopping sprees, trips to the nail salon and even a vacation in Maryland, among other things.
The 44-year-old activist, named Globe Magazine’s Bostonian of the Year in 2020, also duped the federal government into giving her nearly $54,000 in COVID-19-related relief funds.
Prosecutors said Cannon-Grant took that money to pay off her car loan and car insurance.
While her convictions let prosecutors push for more than two decades in federal prison, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Massachusetts is seeking only 18 to 24 months.
Court documents acknowledged this recommendation was at the low end of the sentencing guidelines.
“Monica Cannon-Grant repeatedly scammed multiple public financial programs and stole money donated by members of the public who believed their donations would aid in reducing violence and promote social awareness,” U.S. Attorney Leah Foley said in a statement.
“Instead, Cannon-Grant used donations to satisfy her own greed, while falsely portraying herself as a legitimate nonprofit organizer,” she said.
The Violence in Boston group took in more than $1 million in donations during the fraud scheme that lasted from 2017 to 2020.
The nonprofit, which was started to reduce violence, raise social awareness and help community causes, shut down in 2022 after Cannon-Grant and her husband, Clark Grant, were indicted for fraud.
Charges were dropped against him a year later after he died in a motorcycle crash.
Some of Cannon-Grant’s victims include a BLM group in Cambridge that donated $3,000 to help feed needy children. Prosecutors said the activist wound up giving that money to a family member.
Court filings said Cannon-Grant conned more than $10,000 out of a Massachusetts company under the same premise of helping feed children. But the ex-nonprofit leader used the money to pay back rent and pocketed the rest.
She was also awarded a $6,000 grant from the Massachusetts District Attorney’s Office to take 10 at-risk young men to Philadelphia to expose them to “communities outside of the violence-riddled neighborhoods they experience daily.”
Prosecutors said the grant money became vacation money, with Cannon-Grant using the cash to fund a trip to Maryland that covered hotels, car rentals and pricey meals in multiple states.
Outside of the nonprofit’s scam, the couple also illegally received almost $12,600 in rental assistance from the Boston city government. Prosecutors said they were given financial assistance by hiding how much they made from officials.
Court documents said that by October 2020, Cannon-Grant began paying herself almost $2,800 a week from her charity. The incoming money was noticed by government auditors after the activist reported she received no salary.
“Unemployment caught my a—!” Cannon-Grant texted her husband in March 2021, according to court documents. “Asked me to provide documents by June, unless I’ll have to pay it all back.”
She is scheduled to return to court for sentencing in January.
• Matt Delaney can be reached at mdelaney@washingtontimes.com.
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