Boston City Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson was arrested on federal public corruption charges early Friday morning, according to the FBI.
Fernandes Anderson, who represents Roxbury, Dorchester and the South End, is charged with five counts of aiding and abetting wire fraud and a single count of aiding and abetting theft concerning a program receiving federal funds, according to an indictment unsealed Friday morning.
Earlier this week, reports surfaced indicating that Fernandes Anderson was the subject of a federal investigation.
It is not the first time Fernandes Anderson, who represents Roxbury, Dorchester and the South End, had been subject to scrutiny. Last month, she was hit with multiple campaign finance violations after what state regulators called a “routine analysis” of campaign finance reports from Nov. 2023 to Sept. 2024.
The state Office of Campaign and Political Finance cited the city councilor for failing to promptly disclose $32,900 of the $34,500 that was deposited into her campaign account in that time, MassLive previously reported, and required her to pay a $1,750 fine. She was also forced to return $100 in excess contributions from another candidate’s committee.
Previously, in July 2023, the Massachusetts Ethics Commission cited Fernandes Anderson for hiring her sister and son to full-time positions on her staff after taking office in 2022. She was required to pay a $5,000 civil penalty and said at the time that she “corrected it” as soon as she found out about the issue.
Fernandes Anderson appointed her sister as director of constituent services with an initial salary of $65,000, later increasing her salary to $70,000 with a $7,000 bonus in June 2022. Her son was appointed office manager around the same time, with an initial salary of $52,000, but this, too, was increased to $70,000 just 11 days later.
The city councilor is in her second term and is the first Muslim, first formerly undocumented immigrant and first African immigrant to serve on the council. She won reelection in 2023 with more than 70% of the vote in her district.
Material from a previous MassLive story was used in this report.
