Former Director of Boston Nonprofit Pleads Guilty to Fraud Charges — Press Release, U.S. Attorney's Office, District of Massachusetts

Summary

Press release of the U.S. Attorney's Office, District of Massachusetts, dated September 22, 2025. Monica Cannon-Grant, founder and former Chief Executive Officer of the nonprofit Violence in Boston, pleaded guilty to 18 counts of wire fraud conspiracy, wire fraud, mail fraud, filing false tax returns and failing to file tax returns. She admitted diverting donor money to personal expenses and conspiring to defraud the Boston Resiliency Fund after receiving approximately $53,977 in pandemic relief funds, obtaining $12,600 in rental assistance by concealing household income, and defrauding the Massachusetts Department of Unemployment Assistance. Sentencing is scheduled before Judge Angel Kelley for Jan. 29, 2026.

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PRESS RELEASE


Former Director of Boston Nonprofit
Pleads Guilty to Fraud Charges
Monday, September 22, 2025

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, District of Massachusetts
Monica Cannon-Grant diverted thousands donated to nonprofit to pay for
personal expenses; defrauded Boston COVID-19 relief fund, Boston Office of
Housing Stability, and Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office, among others


BOSTON – The founder and former Chief Executive Officer of the local nonprofit
Violence in Boston (VIB) pleaded guilty today in federal court in Boston to making
misrepresentations in order to obtain thousands of dollars in donations to non-profit
Violence in Boston (VIB) that she then diverted to pay for personal expenses, defrauding
the City of Boston out of COVID-19 relief funds and rental assistance money, defrauding
the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office out of Community Reinvestment Grant
funds, filing false tax return for two years, and failing to file tax returns for two years.

Monica Cannon-Grant, 44, of Taunton, pleaded guilty to 18 counts: three counts of wire
fraud conspiracy; 10 counts of wire fraud; one count of mail fraud, and two counts each
of filing false tax returns and failing to file tax returns. U.S. District Court Judge Angel
Kelley scheduled sentencing for Jan. 29, 2026. In March 2023, Cannon-Grant was
charged along with her co-conspirator and husband Clark Grant in a 27-count
superseding indictment. Clark Grant’s charges were dismissed in May 2023 due to his
death. Cannon-Grant and Clark Grant had previously been charged in an 18-count
indictment in March 2022.

Cannon-Grant was the founder and CEO of VIB, an anti-violence nonprofit formally
established in 2017, the stated purpose of which was to reduce violence, raise social
awareness and aid community causes in Greater Boston, among other purposes.

       “Monica Cannon-Grant repeatedly scammed multiple public financial programs and
       stole money donated by members of the public who believed their donations would aid
       in reducing violence and promote social awareness. Instead, Cannon-Grant used
       donations to satisfy her own greed, while falsely portraying herself as a legitimate
       nonprofit organizer. She betrayed the trust of everyone who donated and the public
       who supported her fraudulent charity,” said United States Attorney Leah B. Foley.
       “Today’s plea demonstrates once again that no one is above the rule of law.”

“Today’s guilty plea underscores our commitment to investigating and holding
accountable anyone who commits fraud. Ms. Cannon-Grant defrauded several state
programs and exploited her position in the community to line her own pockets,” said
Ketty Larco-Ward, Inspector in Charge of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service’s Boston
Division. “This investigation showcases the results that postal inspectors strive to achieve
in collaboration with our law enforcement partners. The successful resolution through a
plea is a result of the strong investigative work, dedication and partnership of postal
inspectors and the U.S. Attorney’s Office. I commend the relentless work and
commitment to ensuring justice was achieved by all those involved.”

“Monica Cannon-Grant illegally enriched herself as part of a scheme that fraudulently
diverted vital taxpayer resources away from those in need of unemployment insurance
benefits during the COVID-19 pandemic,” stated Jonathan R. Mellone, Special Agent-in-
Charge of the Northeast Region, U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Inspector General.
“Protecting the integrity of the unemployment insurance program remains one of our
highest priorities, and we will continue to work closely with the U.S. Attorney’s Office
and our other law enforcement partners to protect the integrity of U.S. Department of
Labor programs and operations.”

As she admitted at today’s plea hearing, from 2017 through at least 2020, Cannon-Grant
represented herself as an uncompensated VIB director to donors and other charitable
institutions when, in reality, she and her late husband agreed to utilize their control over
VIB’s accounts and funds to pay for personal expenditures by diverting VIB funds to
themselves through cash withdrawals, cashed checks, wire transfers to personal bank
accounts and debit purchases.

Over the course of the conspiracy, Cannon-Grant diverted thousands of dollars in donor
money earmarked for VIB for her own personal use. She also applied for or certified the
applications for grants offered by public and private entities that included materially
false representations. For example, Cannon-Grant conspired to use VIB to defraud the
Boston Resiliency Fund, a charitable fund established by the City of Boston to provide
aid to Boston residents during the COVID-19 pandemic. After receiving approximately
$53,977 in pandemic relief funds, Cannon-Grant withdrew approximately $30,000 in
cash from the VIB bank account, made deposits of $5,200 and $1,000 into her personal
checking account, and made payments on her personal auto loan and car insurance
policy. Cannon-Grant did not disclose any of these personal expenses to BRF and,
instead, falsely reported to BRF that all of its grant funds had been appropriately
expended.

In addition, Cannon-Grant conspired to defraud Boston’s Office of Housing Stability by
concealing thousands of dollars of household income in order to obtain $12,600 in
rental assistance from the City of Boston. Instead of truthfully reporting accurate
information about the family’s earnings and benefits, Cannon-Grant and her late
husband misrepresented their actual household income to obtain rent relief funds that
were intended to aid Boston residents who were facing housing insecurity.

Cannon-Grant and her late husband also conspired to defraud the Massachusetts
Department of Unemployment Assistance by submitting a fraudulent applications for
pandemic unemployment assistance and certifying on a weekly basis that they were not
working and did not receive over $89 in income during the prior week. In addition,
Cannon-Grant filed false tax returns for 2017 and 2018 and failed to file tax returns for
2019 and 2020, omitting tens of thousands of dollars in income that Cannon-Grant
received in salary from VIB and through work as a consultant.

The charges of wire fraud conspiracy, wire fraud, and mail fraud each provide for a
sentence of up to 20 years in prison, up to three years of supervised release and a fine
of up to $250,000. The charge of filing false tax returns provides for a sentence of up to
three years in prison, one year of supervised release and a fine of up to $100,000. The
charge of failure to file a tax return provides for a sentence of up to one year of prison,
one year of supervised release and a fine of up to $25,000. Sentences are imposed by a
federal district court judge based upon the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and statutes
which govern the determination of a sentence in a criminal case.

U.S. Attorney Foley; USPIS-IC Larco-Ward; DOL-IG SAC Mellone; Thomas Demeo, Acting
Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation, Boston
Field Office; Matthew M. Modafferi, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Postal Service
Office of Inspector General; and Massachusetts Inspector General Jeffrey Shapiro made
the announcement today. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Adam Deitch and Dustin Chao of the
Public Corruption Unit are prosecuting the case.

On May 17, 2021, the Attorney General established the COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement
Task Force to marshal the resources of the Department of Justice in partnership with
agencies across government to enhance efforts to combat and prevent pandemic-
related fraud. The Task Force bolsters efforts to investigate and prosecute the most
culpable domestic and international criminal actors and assists agencies tasked with
administering relief programs to prevent fraud by, among other methods, augmenting
and incorporating existing coordination mechanisms, identifying resources and
techniques to uncover fraudulent actors and their schemes, and sharing and harnessing
information and insights gained from prior enforcement efforts. For more information
on the Department’s response to the pandemic, please
visit https://www.justice.gov/coronavirus.

Anyone with information about allegations of attempted fraud involving COVID-19 can
report it by calling the Department of Justice’s National Center for Disaster Fraud
(NCDF) Hotline at 866-720-5721 or via the NCDF Web Complaint Form
at: https://www.justice.gov/disaster-fraud/ncdf-disaster-complaint-form.


Updated September 22, 2025


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