And people wonder why this invasion of illegal aliens demanding things from the American people is going to be a problem. Here is exhibit A: Councilwoman Tania Fernandes Anderson, the first African Muslims illegal alien councilwoman from Boston who was arrested for kickbacks.
WCVB reports:
BOSTON —A Boston city councilor was arrested by FBI agents Friday morning after she was indicted in an alleged kickback scheme that netted her thousands of dollars in cash from a staffer in exchange for a large bonus.
Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson, 45, represents District 7 in Boston, which includes Roxbury, Dorchester, Fenway and part of the South End. She pleaded not guilty in federal court on Friday.
According to court documents, Fernandes Anderson faces five federal counts of wire fraud and one federal count of theft concerning programs receiving federal funds.
“These six felony charges stem from an alleged kickback scheme that she orchestrated to obtain several thousand dollars in taxpayer money in exchange for a bribe she paid to a staffer who she gave a very large bonus,” U.S. Attorney Joshua Levy said.
Fernandes Anderson was going to use the money from the scheme to pay a fine issued following an ethics investigation, Levy said.
Fernandes Anderson is expected to appear in federal court Friday afternoon.
According to a federal indictment, Fernandes Anderson gave extra bonus money to “Staff Member A” with the agreement that the staffer would give a portion of the money back to the councilor. That staff member is a relative of Fernandes Anderson, something the councilor lied about, investigators said.
Since staff bonus information is publicly available, Fernandes Anderson said the larger bonus for Staff Member A was to compensate them for previous volunteer work, court documents said.
Staff Member A’s $13,000 bonus was more than double the amount given to other staffers, investigators said.
“But that supersized bonus came with a hitch. Ms. Fernandes Anderson told Staff Member A she would need to fork over $7,000 in cash back to Ms. Fernandes Anderson. Staff Member A agreed,” Levy said.
Over the course of several bank transactions in June 2023, the staffer withdrew $7,000 from the deposited bonus payout, according to the indictment. That money was then surreptitiously handed over to Fernandes Anderson on June 9, 2023, according to the indictment.
“At approximately 4:11 p.m., Staff Member A texted FERNANDES ANDERSON, ‘Bathroom’ to let FERNANDES ANDERSON know that Staff Member A was waiting in the bathroom to hand the $7,000 in cash to FERNANDES ANDERSON. Within seconds, FERNANDES ANDERSON texted Staff Member A, ‘Ready’ to confirm that FERNANDES ANDERSON was ready to accept the $7,000 cash kickback from Staff Member A. Shortly following these texts, Staff Member A handed FERNANDES ANDERSON approximately $7,000 in cash at a bathroom in City Hall,” the indictment states.
Read the full indictment here.
Officials said the investigation is ongoing, and no one else has been charged.
Boston City Councilors control their own budget, deciding for themselves how much to spend on everything from salary and bonuses to postage. In April of 2023, just one month before giving her relative the bonus, 5 Investigates discovered that Fernandes Anderson advocated for bigger salary budgets.
“The point is that we’re not paying our staff properly,” Fernandes Anderson said in City Council chambers.
She and other councilors asked to increase their staff salary budget from $315,000 to $390,000, and suggested “to leave the decision making to discretion of the councilors” on what individual salaries should be.
In 2023, the state ethics commission found Fernandes Anderson violated the conflict of interest law by hiring her sister and son at city hall and raising their salaries to $70,000 a year. Fernandes Anderson agreed to pay a fine of $5,000.
Investigators said Friday the relative involved in the kickback scam was hired after the ethics fine was levied against her, and the scheme was hatched to pay the fine.
“Ms. Fernandes Anderson chose to violate her fiduciary duty and defraud the city of Boston, the indictment alleges, rather than find a legal means to pay off that debt,” Levy said.
Last month, the state Office of Campaign and Political Finance sent her campaign a letter which said it had not timely filed deposit information and had taken contributions over the legal limit.
Earlier this week, Fernandes Anderson said she was “not thinking about quitting. I’m not thinking about stepping down.”
And this is why arrogant, mouthy criminals like Anderson must be arrested instead of “resigning”. This is exactly what took place, and let’s see if the people of Boston will get a bit of justice or this woman will get a slap on the hand and given her position back to enrich herself some more at the expense of the People.
Listen Boston, Anderson should never have been allowed to be in Boston, let alone serve as a councilwoman. If the People don’t wake up and understand it is their responsibility to ensure this doesn’t happen, it will only continue and only get worse. Mark my words!
