She’s grabbing everything that’s not nailed down.
Newly surfaced video shows Boston City Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson moving furniture and a rolled-up rug out of City Hall weeks before she announced plans to plead guilty to federal charges in connection with a kickback scheme.
Fernandes Anderson, 46, could be seen on surveillance footage from March 2 removing chairs, a sofa, large plastic bags and the rug from her office with the help of two others, according to WCVB-TV, which obtained the video.
The following day, a U-Haul charge of $67.12 appeared on Fernandes Anderson’s campaign finance report, the outlet reported.
On April 8, prosecutors announced that Fernandes Anderson would formally cop to one count of wire fraud and one count of theft concerning a program receiving federal funds.
Her plea hearing is scheduled for May 5.
It was unclear whether the councilwoman had already worked out a plea agreement with the feds at the time of her March office clearout.
Prosecutors are asking that Fernandes Anderson, who has represented Boston’s Roxbury and Dorchester neighborhoods since 2022, be sentenced to one year in jail and three years of supervised release, as well as made to pay $13,000 in restitution.
Fernandes Anderson, the first practicing Muslim elected to the Boston City Council, was indicted on federal charges in December. Prosecutors say that in May 2023, she arranged for a staffer — who was also her relative — to receive a $13,000 bonus, $7,000 of which Fernandes Anderson collected.
The amount — given under the guise of payment for prior volunteer work — was more than double the total in bonuses paid out to the rest of the councilwoman’s staff combined, the feds say.
In July 2023, Fernandes Anderson was ordered to pay a $5,000 penalty for violating conflict of interest laws by hiring her sister and her son as staff members.
Prosecutors said the councilwoman planned to pay off the fine with the money she received from her other relative’s bonus.
When Fernandes Anderson hired the other relative in November 2022, she lied in an email to a city employee claiming she and the new hire — who was not part of her immediate family — weren’t related at all, the feds claim.
After receiving the bonus check, the relative made three separate withdrawals between May 31 and June 9, 2023, before handing over the cash to Fernandes Anderson in a City Hall bathroom.
Fernandes Anderson then compounded the crime when she failed to report the $7,000 kickback on her taxes, prosecutors say. The councilwoman also failed to report $11,000 in income on her 2021 tax form and omitted campaign funds that she used “for her own personal enrichment” on the 2022 and 2023 tax forms, according to a Justice Department statement.
The councilwoman was initially indicted on five counts of wire fraud and one count of theft from a program receiving federal funds. She faced a maximum of 110 years in prison if convicted of all charges at trial.
In addition to pleading guilty, Fernandes Anderson said she would resign from the Boston City Council, though she has not yet done so.
A special election will be held to fill Fernandes Anderson’s seat if she resigns before May 8. If she stays on past that date, her replacement will be chosen in the November election.
A lawyer for Fernandes Anderson didn’t immediately return a request for comment Friday morning.
