A prominent Black Lives Matter activist honored as ''Bostonian of the Year'' in 2020 and her husband used their nonprofit to defraud donors of over $1 million in grants and donations, the U.S. Attorney's Office announced Wednesday.
Monica Cannon-Grant and her husband, Clark Grant, who in 2017 co-founded Violence in Boston (VIB), a nonprofit that aims to reduce violence, raise social awareness and aid community causes in Boston, ''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,'' the complaint reads.
''Specifically, from 2017 through at least 2020, it is alleged that Cannon-Grant and Grant exercised exclusive control over VIB financial accounts and diverted VIB money to themselves through cash withdrawals, cashed checks, debit purchases and transfers to their personal bank accounts.''
According to the complaint, the defendants spent some of the money on personal expenses, including ''hotel reservations; groceries; gas; car rentals; auto repairs; Uber rides; restaurants; food deliveries; nail salons; and personal travel. 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 a statement outside the courthouse, Cannon-Grant's attorney, Robert Goldstein, said "we are extremely disappointed the government rushed to judgment here," Fox News reports.
"VIB (Violence in Boston) and Monica have been fully cooperating, and their production of records remains ongoing," Goldstein said. "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."
"We remain fully confident Monica will be vindicated when a complete factual record emerges," he continued.
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