(RepublicanWire.org) – A leading Black Lives Matter activist and her husband are facing federal fraud charges. Prosecutors say the couple, who run a nonprofit campaigning group, have been plundering its funds for their own benefit.
On March 15, police arrested local BLM leader Monica Cannon-Grant outside her Boston, Massachusetts, home and charged her with multiple accounts of fraud and conspiracy. Prosecutors say Cannon-Grant and her husband, Clark Grant, fraudulently obtained money from their Violence In Boston, Inc. (VIB) nonprofit. They allegedly stole at least $185,000 out of over one million the group received in donations.
Prosecutors say that in 2017, the couple transferred a $3,000 donation from the Cambridge, Massachusetts chapter of BLM to a bank account owned by one of Cannon-Grant’s relatives. In 2019, they collected a $6,000 donation from the Suffolk County DA’s office and used it to fund a personal trip. They withdrew cash from the nonprofit’s account via ATMs and transferred more money to investment websites. They also allegedly collected over $100,000 in federal unemployment benefits while Grant was working full-time and Cannon-Grant was paying herself a salary of $2,788 a week from VIB.
Cannon-Grant’s attorney says he’s disappointed the government “rushed to judgment” – Grant was first arrested last year – and claims Cannon-Grant and VIB are “cooperating fully” with the investigation.