On Thursday, a federal grand jury in Boston indicted a city councilor on allegations of public corruption related to a kickback scheme in which she accepted thousands of dollars from a staff member in return for a sizable bonus.
Joshua Levy, the United States Attorney for the District of Massachusetts, told reporters at a press conference a few hours after Tania Fernandes Anderson, who represents District 7 in Boston, was brought into custody without incident, that FBI agents had arrested her Friday morning.
Anderson, 45, was taken into custody by agents shortly after 6 a.m. outside her Dorchester, Massachusetts, home, which is roughly 6 miles south of Boston. Dorchester, Roxbury, Fenway, and a portion of the city’s South End are all in her district.
Reporters were informed by FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge Steve Kelleher in Boston that Anderson turned herself in to investigators outside her house after they called her outside without any problems.
According to a filed federal indictment, Anderson is charged with five federal charges of wire fraud with aiding and abetting and one federal count of theft pertaining to federally funded programs.
On Friday afternoon, she was scheduled to appear in federal court.
Indictment: In the restroom at City Hall, a staffer gave Anderson $7,000
Each Boston councilor has a budget of several hundred thousand dollars to pay staff salaries and bonuses, including those for chief of staff, communications, and constituent services, according to an 11-page indictment filed Thursday in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts.
According to the accusation, an ethics panel determined last year that she had hired two family members to city hall and raised their pay in violation of the conflict of interest statute. According to the indictment, Anderson was fined $5,000 for the nepotism.
According to the indictment, Anderson most recently paid a staff member $13,000 in incentive money with the understanding that the employee would return some of the funds to Anderson.
According to Levy, prosecutors from his office brought the matter to a grand jury, which accused the city leader in the Boston city councilor’s public corruption case.
As of right now, no one else has been prosecuted. Levy stated that the investigation was still open and ongoing, but as of Friday, no one else has been charged in relation to the case.
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