A city councilor in Boston was arrested on Friday morning and charged with using someone on her staff to take thousands of dollars in public funding for her personal gainwinstar88 slot, according to federal officials.
The councilor, Tania Fernandes Anderson, has represented a central swath of the city since 2022. She was indicted on five counts of aiding and abetting wire fraud and one count of aiding and abetting theft from programs receiving federal funds, according to court documents.
“These six felony charges stem from an alleged kickback scheme that she orchestrated to obtain several thousand dollars of taxpayer money in exchange for a bribe she paid to a staffer,” Joshua Levy, the U.S. attorney for the District of Massachusetts, said in a news conference.
Ms. Fernandes Anderson did not respond to request for comment. Her attorney declined to comment.
She broke barriers when she was elected in 2021 as the council’s first Muslim member, as well as its first African immigrant — and formerly undocumented immigrant. (She moved to Boston from Cape Verde as a child.) A Democrat, she was first elected to a two-year term in November 2021 and won re-election last year.
Her district, which covers neighborhoods including Roxbury, Dorchester, the South End and Fenway, is historically one of the poorest and most diverse in the city.
According to court documents, Ms. Fernandes Anderson, 45, was facing financial difficulties in 2023, resulting in bank overdraft fees and missed car and rent payments.
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