Full text and takeaways from indictment of Tania Fernandes Anderson

Joe Dwinell and Gayla Cawley, Boston Herald on Dec 6, 2024

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BOSTON — City Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson is accused of taking a kickback from an underling in a bathroom inside City Hall. That’s just one of the allegations contained in a scathing federal indictment. Here are other takeaways:

•The councilor forced all employees to sign an NDA, a non-disclosure agreement.

•The feds point out that every city councilor is “allotted a budget of several hundred thousand dollars to pay salaries and bonuses for staff.”

•The NDA Fernandes Anderson “required all her staff members to sign” “barred” them “from disclosing any ‘confidential information’ to anyone, unless they received” her “permission.” It’s clear in this federal case, a staffer took this NDA to a higher authority.

•Fellow Councilor Erin Murphy said in a statement this morning that the allegations against her colleague on the council are “deeply disturbing” and alleged “actions like these erode public trust.”

•At the core of this indictment is “Staff Member A.” That person is a pivotal witness for the feds. Yes, that person had to sign the NDA.

•Fernandes Anderson is set to appear for her arraignment in federal court in the Seaport at 3 p.m.

•The indictment points out the City of Boston “received $10,000 of federal grant money” from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). That just gives them jurisdiction in this case. Basically, a back off we’ve got this!

•In this passage the feds don’t hold back: “Defendant FERNANDES ANDERSON defrauded the City of Boston by (a) conceiving and proposing an arrangement whereby Staff Member A would receive additional compensation but would kickback most of this bonus pay; (b) providing materially false and misleading information related to Staff Member A …”

•She “lined her pockets,” interim U.S. Attorney Joshua Levy said today, with $7,000 from a bonus Fernandes Anderson paid to Staff Member A.

•The FBI and IRS are part of this case.

•“The victims are the taxpayers,” the IRS said.

•The investigation remains “open,” Levy said.

•Allegedly receiving the kickback of $7,000 in a City Hall bathroom just intensifies the public corruption case, Levy added at his press conference.

•Levy has stated numerous times his office does goes after public corruption by elected officials and police due to the mistrust it breeds in others who do their jobs for the taxpayers.

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