Violence In Boston Founder Cannon-Grant Charged With Fraud: Feds

BOSTON, MA — Boston activist Monica Cannon Grant, who organized major demonstrations in Massachusetts following the deaths of George Floyd and Hopkinton teen Mikayla Miller, was arrested Tuesday on fraud charges connected to her nonprofit, Violence In Boston.

According to federal prosecutors, Cannon-Grant, 41, and her husband, Clark Grant, 38, misused 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, according to court documents.

Cannon-Grant and Grant are facing charges of two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, one count of conspiracy and 13 counts of wire fraud. Cannon-Grant has also been charged with mail fraud, prosecutors said.

"Cannon-Grant and Grant used grant and donation money to pay for personal expenses including, among other things, hotel reservations; groceries; gas; car rentals; auto repairs; Uber rides; restaurants; food deliveries; nail salons; and personal travel," the U.S. Attorney's office said in a news release. "The defendants did not disclose to other VIB directors or VIB’s bookkeepers or financial auditors that they had used VIB funds for such payments."

In one instance, Cannon-Grant in June 2019 applied for and received a $6,000 grant from the state District Attorney's Office. The money was for a youth trip to Philadelphia for a violence prevention seminar. But according to prosecutors, the couple spent the $6,000 grant on a trip to Maryland hotel, groceries, car rentals and meals at restaurants across the Northeast. None of the money spent in Philadelphia, court records say.

Cannon-Grant formed the Violence In Boston nonprofit in 2017, and rose to prominence in 2020 when she led protests in Boston following the murder of George Floyd. She eventually opened a 4,000 square-foot Violence In Boston headquarters in Hyde Park, which includes a food pantry and podcast studio.

Boston Magazine named her the No. 78 most powerful person in the city last spring, underscoring Cannon-Grant's rising political power in the Boston area.

"[Her work] has the attention Boston politicians, who increasingly want to work with her and help her, whether with those big protests or her regular work fighting violence and feeding Boston’s hungry," the article said.

But Cannon-Grant clashed with Middlesex County District Attorney Marian Ryan last summer when she began organizing around the death of Mikayla Miller. The 16-year-old Black girl was found dead in a wooded area in Hopkinton. Cannon-Grant claimed that local police and Ryan had not properly investigated the death — and the two women came to blows on the GBH show "Greater Boston."

At the time, Cannon-Grant was also collecting funds for an independent investigation into Miller's death, including a private autopsy whose results were not released. A state medical examiner ruled that Miller likely died by suicide.

Cannon-Grant's ascent took a turn in the fall. Federal prosecutors arrested Clark Grant at the couple's Taunton home in October and charged him with fraud and making a false statement on a loan application. Prosecutors have said he collected special pandemic unemployment benefits while still employed, and listed Violence In Boston's assets as his own on a mortgage application.

Last week, the Boston Globe reported a federal grand jury was probing Cannon-Grant and donations to Violence In Boston. She responded to the article on Twitter, saying she had been cooperating with prosecutors.

"All the White Supremacy & anti-blackness I’ve endured it doesn’t surprise me. We’ve known & have been fully cooperating making sure they have everything they need so this can be over & my family can have peace," she wrote on her Twitter account, @ReadyToPissUOff. The account had been deleted on Tuesday.

Cannon-Grant was released after a brief court hearing Tuesday in Boston. She's due back in court in a week for a full arraignment, according to court records.