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  6.  » BLM activist named ‘Bostonian of the year’ whose nonprofit raised $1M is charged with squandering much of it on rent arrears, $1,200 hotel stay and meals

Grant, pictured at a September 2020 BLM rally, is said to have blown donations intended to help vulnerable young men on trips to restaurants and nail salons. She’s also accused of fraudulently obtaining $100,000 in pandemic relief

  • Monica Cannon-Grant, 41, and her husband Clark Grant, 38, of Taunton, allegedly used Violence in Boston Inc. funds to pay for personal expenses
  • Those included outings at Shake Shack, Bubba Gump Shrimp Company and other restaurants, while they also booked a vacation to Maryland, it is claimed
  • They also allegedly fraudulently applied for federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, while having other sources of income and lied about their mortgage
  • Both were charged in an 18-count indictment with wire fraud, conspiracy, and making false statements to a mortgage lending business
  • On Tuesday, Cannon-Grant appeared in a Boston federal court for her indictment
  • Both have made more than $100,000 in pandemic-related unemployment benefits, while Cannon-Grant also made $33,426 in ‘diversity’ consulting fees
  • Cannon-Grant’s activism has previously earned her numerous accolades, such as Boston Globe Magazine’s Bostonian of the Year award in 2020

Associated Press and Oliver Talbot – Daily Mail March 16, 2022

A BLM activist and her husband are accused of collecting approximately $33,426 in unemployment payments and using an unspecified amount of donation money to treat themselves to meals at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co., vacations and trips to the nail salon.

Monica Cannon-Grant, 41, and her husband, Clark Grant, 38, of Taunton, Massachusetts, who founded the non-profit organization Violence in Boston, were charged in an 18-count indictment with wire fraud, conspiracy, and making false statements to a mortgage lending business, the U.S. attorney’s office said in a statement Tuesday.

Cannon-Grant also faces a mail fraud count. She has denied all allegations made against her.

The indictment alleges the couple used the funds to pay for personal expenses including, hotels, car rentals, auto repairs, restaurant meals, nail salons and personal travel, prosecutors said.

Cannon-Grant also allegedly paid herself $2,700-a-week and treated herself to a $450,000 five-bed house in Taunton, Massachusetts, last year.

She is accused of using much of the $1 million raised by her nonprofit Violence in Boston for good causes. Her salary jumped from $25,000 in 2020 to $170,000 in 2021.

Cannon-Grant, once named a Bostonian of the Year by the prestigious Boston Globe newspaper, was arrested at her spacious home last week. She appeared in a federal court on Monday alongside husband.

Judge Judith Dein released Cannon-Grant on her own recognizance, stating that she could continue to work for Violence in Boston, but that she must not be involved in its finances.

Cannon-Grant is the founder and CEO of the organization that was founded in 2017, and Grant is a founding director.

The organization received significant attention at the height of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement in 2020, when the murder of George Floyd by police bolstered the nation’s racial justice movement.

But the BLM foundation has also faced intense scrutiny over financial transparency in recent months, and leaders admitted that they had not been clear about the movement’s finances and governance over the years.

BLM co-founder Patrisse Cullors, stepped down as executive director of the Black Lives Matter Global Network last year amid scrutiny of her $3.2 million property empire.

The foundation has since opened up about such matters. It says the fiscal sponsor currently managing its money requires spending be approved by a collective action fund, which is a board made up of representatives from official BLM chapters.

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