Founder of Violence in Boston and husband charged with fraud in federal indictment

Monica Cannon-Grant speaks during a Justice for Breonna Taylor rally held near Franklin Park.Nathan Klima for The Boston Globe

A prominent community organizer and founder of a nonprofit created to help survivors of violence in Boston was arrested Tuesday at her Taunton home on federal charges that she and her husband spent grants and donations on personal expenses, including to help finance her mortgage, pay rent on her Boston apartment, and buy a car for a relative.

Monica Cannon-Grant, 41, who runs Violence in Boston Inc., and her husband, Clark Grant, 38, also are charged in an 18-count indictment with wrongly collecting an estimated $100,000 in pandemic unemployment benefits and lying on a mortgage application.

The indictment says the couple raised more than $1 million in grants and donations for the charity from 2017 to 2021.

“It is alleged that Cannon-Grant and Grant used grant and donation money to pay for personal expenses including, among other things, hotel reservations; groceries; gas; car rentals; auto repairs; Uber rides; restaurants; food deliveries; nail salons; and personal travel.’’ prosecutors said in a statement. “The defendants did not disclose to other VIB [Violence in Boston] directors or VIB’s bookkeepers or financial auditors that they had used VIB funds for such payments.”

#BREAKING Founders of local nonprofit Violence in Boston indicted on fraud charges for allegedly defrauding donors, grant issuers, MA DUA, and mortgage lender https://t.co/9uO4ICu68f

— U.S. Attorney Massachusetts (@DMAnews1) March 15, 2022

They are charged with two counts of wire fraud conspiracy; one count of conspiracy; 13 counts of wire fraud; and one count of making false statements to a mortgage lending business, according to the US attorney’s office. The indictment also charges Cannon-Grant with one count of mail fraud.

The indictment marks the first time Cannon-Grant has been implicated in the fraudulent schemes and brings additional charges against her husband, who was arrested in October by federal agents who raided their home.

In a statement, Cannon-Grant’s attorney, Robert Goldstein, said ‘we are extremely disappointed the government rushed to judgment here.”

“VIB and Monica have been fully cooperating and their production of records remains ongoing. Drawing conclusions from an incomplete factual record does not represent the fair and fully informed process a citizen deserves from its government, especially someone like Monica who has worked tirelessly on behalf of her community. We remain fully confident Monica will be vindicated when a complete factual record emerges.”

She is is expected to make an initial appearance in US District Court in Boston later Tuesday, while her husband will be summoned to court for arraignment on the new charges at a later date.

When the Globe contacted Cannon-Grant about the federal investigation earlier this month, she said, “I’m clueless to what you’re talking about.”

She later acknowledged the investigation while appearing on a Web radio show and proclaimed her innocence. She said she is being targeted by the government, white supremacists, and a small group of Black people who are jealous of her success.

US Attorney Rachael Rollins, who awarded the nonprofit a $6,000 grant when she was Suffolk district attorney, is recused from the case under Department of Justice policy related to conflicts of interest. First Assistant US Attorney Joshua Levy will oversee the case, officials said.

The indictment, handed down by a federal grand jury, alleges the couple claimed they were not receiving any income from their nonprofit, but Cannon-Grant paid herself $25,096 in 2020 and $170,092 in 2021.

The indictment also alleges that:

• In 2017, when Cannon-Grant had zero money in her personal bank account, a department store awarded her a $10,400 grant “to be used to purchase meals for needy children in the Boston Public school system.” However, Cannon-Grant had the money deposited into a personal account and the couple used $3,111 of the grant money to pay rent on their Boston apartment.
• On June 28, 2019, the nonprofit received a $6,000 grant from the Suffolk district attorney’s office that Cannon-Grant said would be used to “bring 10 at-risk young men and two adult youth workers from the under-served community of Roxbury on a three day Violence Prevention Retreat in Philadelphia. The purpose of this trip is to give these young men exposure to communities outside of the violence-riddled neighborhoods that they navigate daily.”
• Cannon-Grant collected the check and on the same day deposited it into a Violence in Boston account the couple controlled. The money was then used to pay $145 at a Boston nail salon, $400 in groceries, $1,211 in charges at the Sonesta Suites in Maryland, meals in three states at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co., Shake Shack, and other restaurants, and hundreds of dollars in ATM withdrawals. “By July 31, 2019, the VIB Bank Account had a negative balance of -$552.38,’’ prosecutors wrote.
• Neither Cannon-Grant nor her husband told directors of the nonprofit that they had used the $6,000 grant “to pay for their July 2019 personal vacation to Columbia, MD,” the indictment stated. They also did not submit an “after action report” to the Suffolk district attorney’s office as required.
• The couple filed for and received pandemic unemployment benefits while Cannon-Grant was receiving tens of thousands of dollars in “diversity” consulting fees from private companies and while Grant had a full-time job. Cannon-Grant received $33,426 in pandemic funds, while Grant collected $67,950 in benefits, authorities alleged.
• “Unemployment caught my ass. Asked me to provide documents by June unless I’ll have to pay it all back,” Cannon-Grant texted her husband on March 26, 2021, authorities alleged.
• “Have [named redacted by authorities] do a letter saying the building was closed,’' Grant allegedly responded.
• Cannon-Grant convinced a coworker to create a fictitious person and company as backup documentation for the unemployment claims, authorities alleged.
• The couple received a $402,573 mortgage for their home in Taunton last year. Cannon-Grant used a $22,304 “salary bonus” from Violence in Boston to defray her mortgage costs. Grant also filed financial paperwork showing he had a full-time job but also was collecting pandemic unemployment benefits because he had lost a contract for cleaning services.
• Grant “knew that his July 13, 2021 explanation was false because he never had a cleaning contract,” authorities alleged.
• In July 2020, Cannon-Grant paid $9,652.65 to buy a 2012 Honda sedan for a “family member” with Violence in Boston funds.

Cannon-Grant rose to prominence in 2020 after organizing a march in Franklin Park that drew thousands to protest the killing of George Floyd and other Black people at the hands of police. She emerged as a prominent figure in the Black Lives Matter movement and formed a collaboration with a Dorchester restaurant to distribute more than 1,000 free meals a day to people struggling during the pandemic.

For her efforts, the mother of six was honored as a Bostonian of the Year by the Boston Globe Magazine and hailed as the city’s “best social justice advocate” by Boston Magazine.

On Violence in Boston’s website, Cannon-Grant said she started her charity with $1,000 in 2017 and now operates out of a 4,000-square-foot headquarters in Hyde Park. The organization’s stated mission is “to improve the quality of life and life outcomes of individuals from underserved communities by reducing the prevalence of violence and the impact of associated trauma while addressing social injustices through advocacy and direct services.”