Boston Black Lives Matter activist Monica Cannon-Grant is expected to plead guilty to federal fraud charges stemming from allegations that she and her late husband defrauded donors out of more than $1 million in grants and donations to fund their lavish lifestyle, according to multiple reports.
The Boston Herald reported Thursday that Cannon-Grant, who was honored as ”Bostonian of the Year” in 2020, is set to plead guilty to all 18 charges, including mail and wire fraud. She filed a motion for a change-of-plea hearing last week.
Her trial was scheduled to begin in U.S. District Court in Boston on Oct. 14.
Cannon-Grant and her husband, Clark, were first charged in 2022 with using their nonprofit, Violence in Boston (VIB), as a vehicle to enrich themselves, federal prosecutors said. From the time they founded VIB in 2017, the duo diverted $1 million in donations to personal expenses — hotel reservations, travel, restaurants, nail salon visits, groceries, auto payments, insurance and similar expenditures, federal prosecutors said.
Clark Grant died in March 2023 in a motorcycle accident.
In the initial indictment, Cannon-Grant and her husband were also accused of lying on a mortgage application and illegally collecting $100,000 in unemployment benefits.
“Unemployment caught my a–!” Cannon-Grant allegedly texted her husband in March 2021. “Asked me to provide documents by June unless I’ll have to pay it all back.”
Additional charges were brought in 2023 for lying to obtain rent relief funds. Cannon-Grant faces a 27-count superseding indictment that includes conspiracy, wire and mail fraud, false statements on a mortgage application, and tax violations.
The pair created VIB to reduce violence, raise social awareness, and aid community causes in Boston.
Instead, prosecutors said they ”conspired to use VIB as a vehicle to solicit and receive charitable contributions from institutional and individual donors that they then used for a wide range of personal expenses and to enrich themselves while concealing such expenditures from VIB directors, officers and others.”
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.
