Boston City Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson arrested by FBI on public corruption charges

FBI special agents arrested embattled Boston councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson for an alleged kickback scheme in which she pocketed thousands in cash from a staffer in exchange for a large bonus

Fernandes Anderson was seen being taken into custody by federal authorities outside of her home in Dorchester on Friday morning, WCVB reported. She is expected to appear in court later this afternoon.

In late 2022, the councilor hired a relative to be on her staff and then defrauded the city when she finagled a deal with the staffer to receive “additional compensation but would kickback most of this bonus pay,” according to a court filing by the US Attorney’s Office in Massachusetts.

Fernandes Anderson had claimed the larger bonus for the staff member was to compensate them for previous volunteer work, court documents said. 

In around mid-2023, she was facing financial struggles, including missing rent and car payments, bank overdraft fees and a looming $5,000 fine from the city’s Ethics Commission.

The councilor planned to use the money from the scheme to pay a fine issued following an ethics investigation, US Attorney Joshua Levy said.

In June, the staffer texted the councilor to meet her in the bathroom to hand Fernandes Anderson $7,000.

“Shortly following these texts, Staff Member A handed Fernandes Anderson approximately $7,000 in cash at a bathroom in City Hall,” documents state.

She was slapped with the $5,000 fine in 2002 two after she hired two immediate family members to her staff, which is against Boston City Council rules.

Then last month Massachusetts’ Office of Campaign and Political Finance accused her campaign of taking more contributions than legally permitted and failed to file deposit information on time, according to WCVB.

“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,” Special Agent in Charge Jodi Cohen said in a statement. 

“Elected officials have a duty to serve the public with the highest integrity and not to abuse positions of trust for personal gain,” Levy said in a statement.  “By allegedly orchestrating a scheme to funnel public funds into her own pocket, City Councilor Fernandes Anderson betrayed the trust of her constituents and violated her fiduciary duty as a public servant.”

Fernandes Anderson, the first African immigrant and Muslim-American elected to the Boston City Council, represents District 7, which includes the Boston neighborhoods of Roxbury, Dorchester, Fenway, and a portion of the South End. 

She has been a foster mom to 17 children while raising two of her own children, according to her biography on the Boston City Council’s website.