by Debra Heine
A Boston-based BLM activist and her husband are accused of bilking taxpayers and liberal donors out of hundreds of thousands of dollars to use on vacations, restaurants, and trips to the nail salon.
The pair reportedly went on the spending spree using unemployment benefits, and donation funds of the non-profit organization “Violence in Boston.”
Media darling Monica Cannon-Grant, 41, and her husband, Clark Grant, 38, of Taunton, Massachusetts, “were charged in an 18-count indictment with wire fraud, conspiracy, and making false statements to a mortgage lending business,” the Daily Mail reported. Cannon-Grant is also accused of mail fraud.
Monica Cannon-Grant is pictured outside a Boston federal courthouse Tuesday where she and her … https://t.co/RSbt5M94Oj via @MailOnline
— Gerry Callahan (@GerryCallahan) March 16, 2022
The activist is the founder and CEO of Violence in Boston, which was founded in 2017. The nonprofit saw a surge in donations after lifelong criminal George Floyd was killed in police custody in Minnesota three years later.
Cannon-Grant was reportedly arrested at her spacious new home last week. She and her husband appeared in a federal court on Monday. Judge Judith Dein released the activist on her own recognizance, and allowed her to continue working for Violence in Boston with the caveat that she not be involved in its finances
The couple used the money to pay for “personal expenses including, hotels, car rentals, auto repairs, restaurant meals, nail salons and personal travel,” according to the indictment.
She is accused of spending much of the $1 million raised by her nonprofit Violence in Boston on herself. The nonprofit’s mission is to “improve the quality of life and life outcomes of individuals from underserved communities,” its website states.
Her salary jumped from $25,000 in 2020 to $170,000 in 2021, the Daily Mail reported. Flush with cash, she bought a $450,000 five-bed house in Taunton, Massachusetts, last year.
Cannon-Grant and her husband are said to have misappropriated grants intended for their charity, including a $6,000 check given to them by Suffolk District Attorney’s office in June 2019, intended to be spent on a retreat for young men feared to be at risk of falling into crime.
Instead, Cannon-Grant and Grant treated themselves to meals at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. and Shake Shack, and a three-night trip to Maryland that included a $1,200 hotel stay, it is claimed.
Cannon-Grant is also said to have used some of the cash on multiple trips to a Boston nail salon, as well as car rentals, groceries and trips to Walmart.
The $6,000 retreat was supposed ‘to give these young men exposure to communities outside of the violence riddled neighborhoods that they navigate daily’ and give them exposure to activities focused on community-building and coping techniques,’ according to her grant proposal.
Another alleged incident in 2017 saw $3,000 of a $10,000 donation for needy children spent on paying the couple’s rent arrears, it is claimed.
Cannon-Grant and her husband also fraudulently applied for $100,000 federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance benefits that they knew they were not eligible to receive because they had other sources of income at the time, it is alleged.
They also lied to a mortgage lender by saying Violence in Boston’s assets were their own to help pay for mortgage fees and closing costs, prosecutors said.
Cannon-Grant has denied all the allegations.
The vile race hustler was named a Bostonian of the Year by the Boston Globe, and Best Social Justice Advocate by Boston Magazine in 2020. She was given the Summer Urban Program (SUP) award in 2021 for “working tirelessly for the Boston community.” And the Boston Celtics lauded her on Twitter for “spearheading initiatives to prevent violence.”
Our @MAStateLottery #HeroAmongUs is a force to be reckoned with.
An activist who fights for her community, Monica Cannon-Grant's efforts helped to spearhead initiatives to prevent violence, programs to feed families in need # marches to support the #BlackLivesMatter movement. pic.twitter.com/4IxzuOOeRz
— Boston Celtics (@celtics) June 29, 2020
Black Lives Matter has also faced intense criticism and ridicule over its lack of financial transparency.
BLM co-founder Patrisse Cullors stepped down as executive director of the Black Lives Matter Global Network last year, after she was caught spending $26,000 on “meetings” at a luxurious beachside resort in Malibu, California, and approximately $3 million on four different luxury homes across the country.
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Debra Heine reports for American Greatness.
