Violence In Boston Founders Indicted On New Pandemic Fraud Charges

BOSTON, MA — The founders of the Boston nonprofit Violence In Boston were indicted on new charges Thursday linked to the misuse of COVID-19 pandemic relief funds, according to federal prosecutors.

Monica Cannon-Grant, 42, and her husband Clark Grant, 39, were charged Thursday with three counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and 17 counts of wire fraud, among other charges. Cannon-Grant was also charged with mail fraud and tax return crimes.

"The new wire fraud charges center on alleged schemes to obtain and utilize pandemic assistance funds from the Boston Resiliency Fund for purposes not disclosed to the city, including for their own personal benefit, as well as to fraudulently obtain rental assistance payments from Boston’s Office of Housing Stability," federal prosecutors said in a news release.

The new charges are on top of ones brought down one year ago. The pair, who live in Taunton, were charged with two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, one count of conspiracy and 13 counts of wire fraud.

Federal prosecutors accused the couple of spending public and private donations to Violence In Boston — including grants from the state District Attorney's Office, a Cambridge Black Lives Matter chapter and a major department store chain — on themselves. They pleaded not guilty to those charges in 2022.

Cannon-Grant founded Violence In Boston in 2017, the same year federal authorities say she diverted more than $3,000 from a grant intended to feed Boston Public Schools students to buy money orders that she used to pay her rent.

Cannon-Grant rose to prominence in 2020 during protests in Boston over the murder of George Floyd. Boston Magazine named her the No. 78 most powerful person in the city in 2021, underscoring Cannon-Grant's rising political power.

Over the summer of 2021, Cannon-Grant led a movement to draw attention to the death of Hopkinton teen Mikayla Miller where Cannon-Grant clashed with Middlesex DA Marian Ryan. The 16-year-old was found dead in a wooded area off Route 135, although a state medical examiner ruled she likely died by suicide.

Cannon-Grant has maintained a presence since criminal charges were first announced one year ago. She tweets regularly, and a Twitter account @FightForMonica began posting supportive messages about her in May 2022.

On Thursday, she tweeted an image of the author Zora Neale Hurston with the quote, "If you are silent about your pain, they'll kill you and say you enjoyed it."

Cannon-Grant was a featured speaker at a Billerica school in February for Black History Month, upsetting some parents.

Grant and Cannon-Grant will appear at a later date to enter pleas related to the new charges handed down Thursday, prosecutors said.