Boston BLM leader charged with pilfering funds from charity meant to feed children

A prominent Black Lives Matter activist honored as "Bostonian of the 
Year" in 2020 was indicted on Tuesday alongside her husband on 
accusations of treating an anti-violence charity as a personal piggy 
bank.

Prosecutors said Monica Cannon-Grant and her husband, Clark Grant, 
conspired to use their charity, Violence in Boston , as a vehicle 
for personal enrichment when they founded the group in 2017. The 
pair was indicted on charges of stealing donations that were meant 
to purchase meals for needy children, help at-risk young men cope 
with violence in their neighborhoods, and organize conferences for 
black women to pay for rent, vacations, nail salon services, and 
meals at Bubba Gump Shrimp.

As Cannon-Grant's profile grew in 2020 during the nationwide unrest 
that followed George Floyd's killing, so too did donations to the 
charity.

FEDS PROBE BLM ACTIVIST FOR ALLEGEDLY PILFERING FUNDS FROM CHARITY

"With this larger influx of VIB funds, Cannon-Grant and Clark Grant 
began to help themselves to greater amounts from the VIB Bank 
Account," prosecutors wrote in the 18-count indictment , saying that 
she began paying herself $2,788 per week from Violence in Boston 
beginning in October 2020.

The pair faces 13 counts of wire fraud, each of which carries a 
sentence of up to 20 years of prison, prosecutors said in a 
statement on Tuesday.

Cannon-Grant and her husband were also charged with lying in a 
mortgage application by claiming the charity's bank account as an 
asset when they applied for a $450,000 mortgage in July 2021.

The pair also faces charges of illegally obtaining a combined 
$101,376 in COVID-19 unemployment assistance in 2020 while Cannon-
Grant simultaneously raked in $12,500 payments for providing 
"Diversity, Equity and Inclusion consulting services."

Prosecutors said that Cannon-Grant defrauded donors to the charity 
as early as August 2017, when a local BLM chapter donated $3,000 to 
the group to help support its program to feed needy children and 
that two days later, Cannon-Grant transferred the funds to a bank 
account belonging to one of her family members, who subsequently 
withdrew the funds in cash.

One month later, in September 2017, Cannon-Grant allegedly cashed a 
$10,400 grant to the charity earmarked for meals for needy children 
in the Boston school system into her personal bank account and 
subsequently pulled $3,111 from the grant to pay for rent at her 
Boston residence.

Prosecutors said that Cannon-Grant and her husband often made cash 
withdrawals from Violence in Boston's bank account to "avoid a 
financial paper trail."

In 2019, Violence in Boston received a $6,000 grant from the 
Massachusetts District Attorney's Office to fund a retreat for at-
risk young men to help them develop skills to cope with violence in 
their neighborhoods. But prosecutors said the funds were ultimately 
used to pay for a vacation to Columbia, Maryland, in which Cannon-
Grant and her husband spent hundreds of dollars on nail salon 
services, meals at Bubba Gump Shrimp, and cash ATM withdraws.

Also in 2019, Cannon-Grant cashed a $500 charitable contribution 
into her personal checking account that was intended to support a 
"Black Women & Marginalized Genders" conference co-hosted by her 
charity, the indictment alleges.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/restoring-america/equality-not-
elitism/boston-blm-leader-charged-with-pilfering-funds-from-
charity-meant-to-feed-children

Democrats and BLM, peas from the same pod.