Boston City Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson (D) has been arrested on allegations of orchestrating a kickback scheme that funneled thousands of taxpayer dollars for her personal benefit.
Anderson, 45, faces federal charges, including five counts of wire fraud and one count of theft related to federally funded programs.
The FBI took Anderson into custody on Friday, as announced by the Department of Justice. The indictment alleges that Anderson violated Massachusetts state laws by hiring family members as paid staff and running a “bonus kickback scheme” in which she awarded inflated bonuses to a relative, who then returned a portion of the funds to her.
Massachusetts law prohibits city councilors from employing immediate family members on their staff. In or around 2022, Anderson hired two close relatives and was later required to terminate their employment.
She was fined $5,000 by the Massachusetts State Ethics Commission in the spring of 2023 for these actions.
According to the indictment, Anderson circumvented these restrictions in November 2022 by hiring a relative not classified as immediate family. She allegedly misrepresented her relationship with the relative in official communications, writing in an email to a City of Boston employee that the staffer “for the record is not related to me.”
By May 2023, Anderson had informed the relative that they would receive a substantial bonus, contingent on returning a portion of the money to her.
Court documents detail how she instructed a city employee to process a $13,000 bonus for the relative—more than double the combined total of bonuses awarded to all other staff members. The kickback arrangement was not disclosed to city officials.
The bonus was deposited into the relative’s bank account on May 26, 2023. Authorities allege that the relative, acting under Anderson’s direction, made three significant cash withdrawals: $3,000 on May 31, $3,000 on June 5, and $4,000 on June 9. On June 9, Anderson reportedly met with the relative in a City Hall bathroom, where she received $7,000 from the withdrawn funds.
“Using public office for personal gain is a crime,” said Jodi Cohen, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Boston Division. “This case is a slap in the face to hardworking taxpayers who expect honesty and integrity from their elected officials. The FBI and our partners are committed to rooting out public corruption and restoring faith in government.”
Anderson, who was elected to Boston’s City Council in 2021 and re-elected in 2023, has described herself as “the first formally undocumented African-born immigrant and first Muslim elected in Boston.”
However, her tenure has been marked by controversy, including accusations of creating an “unhealthy” workplace environment through frequent outbursts and unpredictable behavior at City Council meetings.
The Department of Justice announced that Anderson would appear in federal court in Boston on Friday afternoon. If convicted, she faces severe legal penalties, including significant prison time and fines.
