Boston City Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson pleads guilty to federal corruption charges
Boston City Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson pleaded guilty to federal corruption charges in court on Monday after taking a $7,000 kickback from a staff member.
The 46-year-old council member was charged with one count of wire fraud and theft involving federal funds.
She will be sentenced on July 29. The government recommended one year and one day in prison, as well as three years of supervised release and $13,000 in restitution, as per a plea agreement she entered in April.
In the plea agreement, she also admitted to filing fraudulent income taxes in 2021, 2022, and 2023. She did not include $11,000 in income from a Mass corporation, campaign funds she used for her own "personal enrichment," and the $7,000 kickback in her returns to the IRS. She will not face tax charges.
"Her constituents deserve better than this. They deserve a city representative who respects the role of public service and does not use the power and position to line her own pockets," said United States Attorney Leah B. Foley.
"Tania Fernandes Anderson used the city of Boston. She wielded her official powers for her own financial gain, and grossly betrayed the trust of the residents she was elected to serve," said acting special agent in charge of the FBI Boston Bureau James Crowley in a statement.
Receiving $7,000 kickback from staff member
Fernandes Anderson was accused of hiring a relative in November 2022, before giving them a $13,000 bonus months later under the condition that she also received some of the bonus.
The U.S. Attorney's office for Massachusetts said it was more than double the bonus that was given to her other staff. Then, in May of 2023, she instructed the staff member to meet her in a bathroom at Boston City Hall and give her $7,000 of the bonus.
The indictment revealed that she was experiencing "personal financial difficulty" at the time and had missed monthly rent and car payments. She was due to pay a fee of $5,000 in 2023 after she had hired two immediate family members in 2022.
Fernandes Anderson says she will resign
Fernandes Anderson represents District 7 in Boston, which includes Dorchester, Roxbury, Fenway, and part of the South End. She was first elected in November 2021, then re-elected in November 2023.
"It really hasn't been about me. I was trying to resign immediately. My advisory council advised that District 7 doesn't deserve not to have a vote in the budget, so it looks like, and I'm working with them and I'll give you more of a final decision soon, it looks like in June hopefully once we get the budget out," Fernandes Anderson said outside court on Monday.
The councilor agreed to resign after refusing when she was arrested in December 2024.
A special election will be held to fill her seat when she resigns. Boston City Councilor Ed Flynn said that the council needs an ethics committee following "a series of legal and ethical lapses by members at the Boston City Council over the last several years."
"We need to acknowledge that we have lost credibility and the question is – what are we going to do about it," Boston City Councilor Ed Flynn said. "We just can't pretend that nothing happened."
Support for Fernandes Anderson
Ed Gaskin is the executive director of Greater Grove Hall Main Streets, which tackles community concerns to help businesses succeed.
"So, I was one of the people who wrote a letter of support," said Gaskin.
He thinks sentencing Anderson to a year of community service and a financial planning course could be more impactful.
"I happen to think that the councilor was very good in terms of representing the district," Gaskin said. "What it means is that for some point of time there's uncertainty as to who represents the district and therefore, without representation the district becomes at a loss again."
