Report: Criminally-charged Boston BLM activist was propped up by prominent Massachusetts Democrats
BOSTON, MA- Law Enforcement Today has reported a couple times on Boston-area Black Lives Matter activist Monica Cannon Grant, recently indicted along with her husband for allegedly misappropriating funds from her nonprofit, Violence in Boston, for personal use, including a home in Taunton, Massachusetts, vacations, and personal services.
Now, the Washington Examiner is reporting that a number of prominent Massachusetts Democrats helped boost Cannon-Grant’s profile.
Among those who pushed Cannon-Grant into prominence are Democrats including Biden’s Labor Secretary and former Boston mayor, Marty Walsh; Sen. Elizabeth Warren; Rep. Ayanna Pressley and Boston Mayor Michelle Wu. This all occurred during the time when Cannon-Grant and her husband, Clark were allegedly pilfering the charity.Aidan Kearney, who has been covering Cannon-Grant for a number of years even before her rise on the Boston activist scene in 2020 in the aftermath of George Floyd’s overdose death in Minneapolis, slammed Democrat officials who used their platforms to legitimize her prior to her indictment.
“They chose to ignore her transparent fraud and not only donated to her, but participated in racial justice forums hosted by Monica,” Kearney told the Examiner. “Without their complicity, she never would’ve been able to do what she did.”
Kearney added that elected officials purposely ignored some of Cannon-Grant’s unhinged antics, including one in 2020 where she railed against a black Republican woman, married to a white man, who had the audacity to think of running against Pressley.
“This heifer running against Ayanna Pressley—this one here with the white husband. At some point, we going to have to have a conversation with black folks who get in a relationship with white folks and then forget they’re black,” Cannon-Grant said in her racist tirade.
“If white vagina and white penises jeopardize your melanin, then we need you to sit in the back of the classroom.”Prosecutors allege that Cannon-Grant and her husband used the nonprofit charity she founded to launder funds for personal use.
They are charged with absconding with donations that were supposed to be used to purchase meals for needy children, help at-risk young men cope with violence in their neighborhoods, and organize conferences for black women. Apparently none of that happened.
The fraud scheme started in 2017 and grew in 2020 in the midst of the Floyd riots that took place across the U.S.
“With this larger influx of VIB [Violence in Boston] funds, Cannon-Grant and Clark Grant began to help themselves to greater amounts from the VIB Bank Account,” prosecutors wrote in an 18-page indictment, noting she had started paying herself $2,788 per week from the charity starting in October 2020.
She was also honored by the woke Boston Globe, honored as “Bostonian of the Year in 2020, and was also honored by Boston Magazine as the year’s “best social justice advocate.” All the while padding her personal bank account, the Examiner said.
So ensconced within the Boston political scene was Cannon Grant that she once claimed to have Boston-area officials on speed dial in 2019.
“Most of the politicians in the city, I have their cell phone number. The only one I don’t have—but I’m not upset about—is [Governor] Charlie Baker,” she told The Boston Scope. “The mayor, direct call to his cell phone. Michelle Wu, direct call to her cell phone. District Attorney Rollins, direct call to her cell phone.”
A true legend in her own mind.
The Examiner said elected Massachusetts Democrats gave Cannon-Grant their personal, as well as financial support while the alleged fraud was occurring.
She claimed on her Facebook page that both Warren and Pressley had donated to Violence in Boston in June 2020, the same month both Democrats appeared on a virtual summit organized by the nonprofit.
On June 1, 2020, Warren sent her a letter in which she thanked Cannon-Grant for inviting her to the summit, according to a copy of the letter posted on Cannon-Grant’s Facebook page.
“Your activism and organizing give me hope, and I will continue to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with you in this fight for justice,” Warren wrote.
Meanwhile Walsh, then serving as Boston’s mayor, donated public funding to Violence in Boston, the Boston Globe reported. The donation came after Walsh met with Cannon-Grant ant asked her to “stop calling me a motherfucker.”
Meanwhile, Boston’s new inept mayor, Michelle Wu, also used her elevation to prominence to support the activist. In June 2020, Wu tweeted she was “proud to be in the sea of tens of thousands” following Cannon-Grant.
The Washington Examiner reached out to Warren, Pressley and Wu for comment, neither of whom responded.
Meanwhile, a number of other Boston-area Democrats were “friends of Monica.” They include former Massachusetts Rep. Joe Kennedy III, who promoted Cannon-Grant’s endorsement for Senate on his campaign website.
In addition, two Boston city officials, Councilor Julia Mejia and former city councilor Andrea Campbell also threw down with Cannon-Grant, offering her messages of support prior to her getting indicted.
Campbell is an announced candidate for Massachusetts attorney general, and has participated in a number of events for Violence in Boston as recently as August 2021.
Former Boston City Councilor Tito Jackson is also described as a close ally, with Cannon-Grant referring to him as a “mentor” in a Facebook post.
Then there is good old Rachael Rollins, former Suffolk County district attorney now serving as U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts, the office which is charged with prosecuting Cannon-Grant and her husband. While Rollins was forced to recuse herself, one must question her judgment in being involved with a purported criminal such as Cannon-Grant in the first place.
For example, Rollins has previously called Cannon-Grant a “passionate skilled community activist’ as well as “a friend” during a 2019 campaign event.
For our prior reporting on Ms. Cannon-Grant and her husband, we invite you to:
DIG DEEPER
The following contains content within which is editorial in nature and is the opinion of the writer.
Just three months later, Rollins directed some $6,000 in asset forfeiture funds to Violence in Boston, ostensibly to fund a “youth retreat” in Philadelphia. As Law Enforcement Today recently reported, Cannon-Grant and her husband instead used the money to fund a vacation to Columbia, Maryland, where the couple spent much of the money on accommodations, nail salon services, meals at Bubba Gump Shrimp, and numerous ATM withdrawals.
Boston.com, the online version of the Boston Globe actually reached out to Rollins for comment, but she declined, the Examiner said.
BOSTON, MA- Could this be karma? Maybe. Just days after Law Enforcement Today reported on a Black Lives Matter activist from Boston being under investigation by a Suffolk County grand jury, the hammer has dropped.
Monica Cannon Grant, who started a nonprofit called “Violence in Boston,” is accused of spending much of the $1 million raised by that nonprofit on a home, expensive hotel stays, vacations, meals at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co, and much more, Gateway Pundit reports.
Cannon-Grant, who was previously named the leftist Boston Globe’s “Woman of the Year” was indicted Tuesday on federal charges.
According to the Daily Mail:
A BLM activist has been charged over a huge fraud which is said to have included blowing a grant intended for young men at risk of violence on trips to Bubba Gump Shrimp Co., Shake Shack, and a nail salon.
Monica Cannon-Grant, 41, is also said to have paid herself $2,700-a-week and treated herself to a $450,000, five-bed house in Taunton, Massachusetts last year.
The Mail also noted that Cannon-Grant had increased her annual salary from $25,000 in 2020 to $170,000 in 2021.
Cannon-Grant was arrested at her home last week, and appeared in federal court Monday, alongside her husband Clark Grant, 38. They are facing 18 separate criminal counts dating from between 2017 to July 2021. As expected, Cannon-Grant denies all charges made against her.
Despite misappropriating such a huge sum of money, Judge Judith Dein released Cannon-Grant on her own recognizance, while allowing her to continue to work for her nonprofit, the very organization which she used as a cover to commit her fraud. However, she is prohibited from any involvement in the nonprofit’s finances.
The modern-day Bonnie and Clyde are accused of misappropriating grants for the charity, including a $6,000 check given to them in the form of a grant by the Suffolk County District Attorney’s office in June 2019, which was supposed to be spent on a retreat for young men feared to be at risk from getting involved in criminal activity.
The Mail said that instead, the duo treated themselves to meals at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. and Shake Shack, as well as a three night trip to Maryland which included a $1,200 hotel stay, it is alleged.
According to WBUR, the 38-page indictment alleges that during the time period involved, Cannon-Grant and her husband “solicited and received over a million dollars in donations and grants from individuals, charitable institutions, and other entities through fundraising” for the charity. They are accused, WBUR says, of “using VIB funds for personal expenses such as financing their mortgage, taking vacations, and buying a car for [a] relative.”
“Beginning at least as early as 2017, Cannon-Grant, Clark Grant, and conspirators known and unknown to the Grand Jury agreed to use VIB [violence in Boston] as a vehicle to personally enrich themselves and their designees,” the indictment reads.
“Cannon-Grant and Clark Grant diverted VIB monies to themselves through cash withdrawals, cashed checks, wire transfers to their personal bank accounts, and debit purchase, among other methods.”
If convicted, the couple could face prison times of up to 20 years for each of the wire fraud conspiracy counts. They are scheduled to be arraigned next week. Cannon-Grant refused to speak with reporters and was rushed to a waiting car.
Cannon-Grants lawyer Rob Goldstein complained the indictment was rushed and believes his client will be vindicated.
“We are extremely disappointed the government rushed to judgment here. VIB and Monica have been fully cooperating and their production of records remains ongoing,” Goldstein said in a statement.
“Drawing conclusions from an incomplete factual record does not represent the fair and fully informed process a citizen deserves from its government, especially someone like Monica who has worked tirelessly on behalf of her community.”
The indictment reveals Cannon-Grant and her husband are opportunists, both of whom collected pandemic-related unemployment benefits in 2020 despite the fact the charity was raising significant funds by that year.
The couple claimed they didn’t receive compensation for their work at VIB, despite Cannon-Grant receiving a reported $25,000 salary in 2020.
“In 2020, VIB began to collect significantly more money in charitable donations,” the indictment reads. “For example, the VIB bank account received approximately $50,000 in donations in the month of April 2020, alone, its largest monthly collection amount at the time. With this larger influx of VIB funds, Cannon-Grant and Clark Grant began to help themselves to greater amounts from the VIB Bank Account.”
It is alleged that the couple received nearly $100,000 in pandemic funds while Cannon-Grant was simultaneously receiving tens of thousands of dollars as a diversity consultant, the indictment reads. In order to qualify for pandemic unemployment funds, Cannon-Grant had to have claimed her place of employment was closed due to the pandemic, which it was not.
“Cannon-Grant and Clark Grant used their fraudulently obtained PUA benefits to help pay for plane tickets, new furniture, Amazon purchases, and [to] help defray the costs for a motorcycle for Clark Grant, among other household and personal expenditures.”
Regarding the $6,000 grant from the Suffolk County DA’s Office, it was intended to take at-risk youth to a violence prevention retreat in Philadelphia in 2019. The indictment noted that no VIB bank activity was noted in Philadelphia, but rather in Maryland.
“Neither Cannon-Grant nor Clark Grant disclosed to VIB directors that they had used the MDAO $6,000 grant to pay for their July 2019 personal vacation to Columbia, MD.”
The indictment alleges that the grant was used “to pay for, among other things, $145 at a Boston nail salon; over $400 in grocery and Walmart purchases in Columbia, MD; hundreds of dollars in meal costs in Connecticut, New Jersey, and Maryland, including at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co., Shake Shack, and other restaurants; $1,,211 in charges at Sonesta Suites, Columbia, MD; hundreds of dollars in fuel, parking, and car rental costs; and hundreds of dollars in ATM withdrawals.”
The grant was awarded under former Suffolk County District Attorney Rachael Rollins, now Massachusetts U.S. Attorney who is supposed to be prosecuting the case. Rollins has been recused from the case “as a matter of policy,” and First Assistant Josh Levy is charged with prosecuting the case instead.
The City of Boston, which gave the nonprofit over $55,000 between 2018-2020 for violence prevention programs and pandemic-related food programs. A city spokesperson said the city has received a subpoena in the case and is cooperating.
Many people are not surprised by the indictment of Cannon-Grant. One of those is Boston activist Jamarhl Crawford, who has butted heads with Cannon-Grant over the years, who said he is not surprised by the indictment. He fears that Cannon-Grant’s alleged malfeasance will have a negative effect on other non-profits who do similar work.
“Because she was the popular figure, she sucked a lot off the funds out where that money could have been donated to;;people who really did the work and are trustworthy stewards of the donations that they’re given,” Crawford said. “But at the end of the day, this is a tragedy, this is family.”
Cannon-Grant also has a long-running feud with a Boston area blogger, Clarence Woods Emerson, aka “Turtleboy,” who has been exposing Cannon-Grant’s hijinks for years.For our previous report on Cannon-Grant, we invite you to:
DIG DEEPER
The following contains editorial content which is the opinion of the writer.
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BOSTON, MA- Another day, another financial scandal involving a Black Lives Matter-affiliated activist.
Weeks after learning that over $60 million (probably WELL over $60 million) in donations is apparently not being managed by anyone (or has disappeared), we find that there is some apparent malfeasance occurring in the Boston chapter affiliated with BLM, RedState reports.
According to the Boston Globe, a Boston-area community organizer who parlayed the overdose death of George Floyd into gaining prominence (and apparently a lot of cash) is under federal investigation for misuse of funds to her nonprofit, according to three people with knowledge of the probe.
Monica Cannon-Grant, 41, started the nonprofit, Violence in Boston, Inc., started the charity in 2017 with only $1000, the Globe said, but has parlayed that into now operating out of a 4,000 square-foot headquarters in the Hyde Park section of Boston.
The latest investigation into Cannon-Grant comes as part of an investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s Office which led to the arrest last October of her husband, Clark Grant, as well as the raid of the couple’s Taunton, Massachusetts home.
The Globe says that a federal grand jury recently issued subpoenas from the Suffolk County District Attorney’s office, which is one of a number of public and private donors to Cannon-Grant’s organization.
Violence in Boston’s mission statement is “to improve the quality of life and life outcomes of individuals from underserved communities by reducing the prevalence of violence and the impact of associated trauma while addressing social injustices through advocacy and direct services.” It is apparently also intended to improve the quality of life for Cannon-Grant and her husband.
The Globe noted that prosecutors are probing whether any of the donations or grant money were spent on personal expenses for the couple, according to individuals familiar with the investigation. Those sources spoke on condition of anonymity due to the fact they are not authorized to speak publicly about the ongoing probe.
“We don’t confirm or deny investigations,” said Christina Dilorio-Sterling, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
It should also be noted that Cannon-Grant has close relationships with radical squad member Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) and equally radical Boston Mayor Michelle Wu (D), which were formed when both politicians served on the Boston City Council.
Clark Grant was accused of committing COVID-19 unemployment fraud and making false statements on a mortgage application, RedState said.
“Federal prosecutors allege he collected $67,950 in COVID-19 pandemic unemployment benefits between May 2020 and September 2021 although he was employed full-time during that period, according to a 15-page criminal complaint,” The Globe wrote.
Grant also listed the nonprofit’s bank account as his own when he and Cannon-Grant applied for a $402,573 mortgage on their Taunton home.
Typical for someone such as Cannon-Grant, she denied any wrongdoing and instead blamed “white supremacists, the government and a group of black folks” for targeting her due to her “success.”
She repeated the usual “more money, more problems” mantra and alleged that nobody paid any attention to her when she was “working out of parking lots and a kitchen. She alleged that those who targeted her for the investigation were basically jealous of her “awards and accolades.” Bit of a legend in her own mind, no?
Cannon-Grant, who has time to community organize even as the mother of six children, became a prominent Boston-area voice of Black Lives Matter in recent years. For example, in 2020 she organized a march in Franklin Park that drew thousands to protest alleged deaths of black people at the hands of police officers.
Cannon-Grant is also a favorite of the Globe, having been honored as a Bostonian of the Year by the Boston Globe Magazine while also being propped up as the city’s “best social justice advocate” by Boston Magazine.
She claimed she didn’t know anything about the investigation when contacted by the Globe last week.
“I’m clueless to what you’re talking about. I have no comment. I probably should talk to my lawyers,” she said.
Not so ironically, mere hours later she acknowledged the investigation while defending herself on a Web radio show that is broadcast from a studio in her headquarters, where she made the allegations about being targeted by certain people and groups.
Cannon-Grant said the non-profit, Violence in Boston, had grown from an organization with somewhere between $40,000 to $50,000 two years ago to a “multimillion-dollar organization.”
The nonprofit’s attorney, Rob Goldstein said in a statement:
“We don’t know the nature or scope of an investigation but can confirm that both Monica and Violence in Boston are fully cooperating with any and all informational requests so that any investigation can be swiftly wrapped up and Monica and Violence in Boston can focus solely on their important work.”
As is typical for such organizations, in particular those affiliated with Black Lives Matter, the nonprofit was lacking in filing certain required federal tax documents which are required of public charities.
The Globe said they were unable to verify certain financial information on the nonprofit. The only federal tax return filed by the group, from 2020, said the organization raised and spent $85,000 the previous year, and reported no salaries.
The money donated by the Suffolk County District Attorney’s office, a $6,000 grant, was to be used to take local youths on a “trip.” That was part of $100,000 in grants awarded by then-district attorney Rachael Rollins to 21 nonprofits, with the money coming out of the office’s asset forfeiture fund.
“Our communities are stronger thanks to the dedication of our nonprofits and their staff who work daily to prevent youth violence and substance use and who focus on improving the mental health of our young people in Suffolk County,” Rollins said at the time.
In light of the investigation into Cannon-Grant, the Suffolk County DA’s office has stopped external expenditures from the asset forfeiture fund, Suffolk County DA Kevin Hayden said, noting the office is “cooperating fully” in the probe.
Among other entities giving money to Violence in Boston was the city of Boston itself, which awarded a $53,977 grant in 2020, and the Cummings Foundation, which is donating $100,000 over a three year period. The executive director of the Cummings Foundation, Joyce Vyriotes, said she was “unaware” of any federal investigation.
As Cannon-Grant typically does when she is confronted with some alleged malfeasance on her part, she unleashed her supporters on the Globe for the mere mention of the investigation. Cannon-Grant has had an ongoing battle with a local blogger in Worcester, Aiden Kearney aka “Turtleboy”, who has reported extensively on her activities.
For example, Gary Dantzler, founder of Black Lives Matter Rhode Island said “there’s no way” Cannon-Grant could have misused the donations, The Globe wrote.
“There’s no way a woman with these accolades could do this,” he said in a phone interview, while alleging it is blacks who are jealous over her “success,” not whites, for the probe.
“This has nothing to do with white America,” Dantzler said. “It’s black America. Black America is fighting amongst each other for the crumbs. The community was upset about her progress. It’s not a lot of black people. It’s just a few. They ambushed her and told lies about her. ‘She stole money.’ That’s false. That’s a lie. She didn’t steal anything. The black people who said that about her are seriously dead wrong and they should be ashamed of themselves. She came to the aid of each last one of them.”
Rayla Campbell might have something to say about that narrative. Campbell, a Republican, ran against Pressley in the 2020 congressional race, and Cannon-Grant apparently had a problem with that, according to The Boston Herald. She claimed that “black women should defend” black women such as Pressley and Rollins, who Campbell also criticized.
In a viral video at the time, Cannon-Grant repeatedly referred to Campbell as a “heifer” while making racist anti-white references to Campbell’s husband, who is white.
In response to the video going viral, all Cannon-Grant would say was, “I do wish I had been more careful with m words.” Pressley meanwhile appeared to support Cannon-Grant’s racist rant, with Campbell hearing nothing from her campaign at the time.
“I haven’t heard a single word from the Pressley campaign,” Campbell said. “You need to stand up because this is racism at its core—bigotry at its core.”
Black Lives Matter’s financial issues were brought to light a few weeks ago by the Washington Examiner,which found millions of dollars of the group’s money had gone missing, while one of the founders—Patrisse Cullors—became quite the real estate investing phenomenon. It is also unknown who is actually running the organization.
That caused states such as California and Washington to halt fundraising in those states for the group, while Amazon has removed BLM from its charity page, Amazon Smile.
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