Boston City Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson arrested by feds on corruption charges [+Read indictment]

Boston City Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson was arrested today by federal agents and is set to be arraigned in a Boston federal courthouse later in the day, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced in a statement.

Fernandes Anderson was indicted on five counts of aiding and abetting wire fraud and one count of aiding and abetting theft concerning a program receiving federal funds, according to court records and a publicly available indictment.

The councilor — who represents Roxbury, Dorchester, Fenway, and part of the South End — hired a staff member identified in court documents as “Staff Member A” in late 2022 who was related to her “but was not an immediate family member” and agreed to give the person a $13,000 bonus, most of which they would kickback to Fernandes Anderson, according to the indictment.

“At defendant Fernandes Anderson’s instructions, Fernandes Anderson and Staff Member A arranged to meet at a bathroom at City Hall where Staff Member A would hand approximately $7,000 in cash to Fernandes Anderson,” court documents said.

The two exchanged texts ahead of the meeting and “shortly following these texts, Staff Member A handed Fernandes Anderson Approximately $7,000 in cash at a bathroom in City Hall,” court documents said.

Fernandes Anderson is paid $115,000 a year as a city councilor, but the feds say she was having money problems.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts plans to hold a 9:30 a.m. press conference at a federal courthouse in Boston to discuss Fernandes Anderson’s arrest and federal public corruption charges.

In November 2022, Fernandes Anderson emailed a City of Boston employee to inform them of the hiring of “Staff Member A,” in which the councilor “falsely” told the employee that she and Staff Member A” were not related, prosecutors allege.

“For the record (redacted) is not related to me,” Fernandes Anderson wrote in the email, according to court documents.

Court records said Fernandes Anderson was facing “personal financial difficulty” in early to mid-2023, including missing monthly rent and car payments, an impending $5,000 fine from the State Ethics Commission connected to hiring immediate family members, and incurring bank overdraft fees.

Fernandes Anderson told “Staff Member A” around May 2023 that she would give the person a “large bonus” but that the staff member “would have to give a portion of the bonus back to Fernandes Anderson,” prosecutors said.

“Staff Member A agreed to the arrangement with Fernandes Anderson,” court documents said.

The city councilor told her staff that they would be receiving bonuses but said “Staff Member A” would be getting a larger amount because Fernandes Anderson “wanted to pay Staff Member A for their prior volunteer work,” according to federal prosecutors.

“Fernandes Anderson did not disclose the kickback arrangement with Staff Member A,” according to the indictment.

Staff bonus information is publicly available, according to the court documents.

Fernandes Anderson then sent an email to a City of Boston employee to process the $13,000 bonus payment for “Staff Member A,” which was twice as large as the total amount of all bonus payments handed out to the councilor’s other staff, according to court documents.

After the money was deposited into the bank account of “Staff Member A,” Fernandes instructed the staff member to make separate cash withdrawals of the bonus check, prosecutors alleged in court documents.

The staff member made two separate cash withdrawals of $3,000 from two different bank locations in Boston on May 31, 2023 and June 5, 2023, according to court documents. The person then withdrew $4,000 from a third Boston bank on June 9, 2023, court documents said.

The indictment also states Fernandes Anderson demanded that staffers sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) in order to work for her.

Fernandes Anderson has faced a series of controversies since taking office roughly three years ago.

She purged $1,750 from her campaign account to the state after facing campaign finance violations related to failing to report in a timely fashion thousands in contributions over an 11-month period and taking in an excess contribution.

Fernandes Anderson was also ordered to pay campaign finance regulators $5,000 last year for hiring her sister and son to paid positions on her city council staff.

This is a developing story…