A scamming Black Lives Matter activist once named the Bostonian of the Year has been ordered to pay back back $224,000 she embezzled for shopping sprees and vacations.
Monica Cannon-Grant was ordered to make the massive payout this week after already being sentenced in January to four years of probation, six months of house arrest and 100 hours of community service for her widespread wire and tax fraud, WBUR reported.
The activist and her now-dead husband had scammed cash from donors and charities — including $3,000 from a BLM group — for their nonprofit Violence in Boston (VIB), claiming it would help feed children and organize demonstrations over issues like police violence.
She instead used the money to pay for rent, cars, shopping sprees, delivery meals, visits to a nail salon and even a summer vacation to Maryland.
She pleaded guilty in September to 18 charges, including wire fraud and falsifying tax returns.
The $224,000 is for the $180,000 diverted from her VIB nonprofit, with the rest covering rental assistance and federal pandemic-related unemployment benefits, Judge Angel Kelley ruled.
The ruling capped a stunning fall from grace for the activist, who grew to prominence during the Black Lives Matter protests after the murder of George Floyd in 2020.
Cannon-Grant’s activism earned her numerous accolades, including Boston Globe Magazine’s Bostonian of the Year award and a Boston Celtics Heroes Among Us award, both in 2020.
Instead, “Cannon-Grant used donations to satisfy her own greed, while falsely portraying herself as a legitimate nonprofit organizer,” federal prosecutor Leah B. Foley noted when Cannon-Grant pleaded guilty in January.
“She betrayed the trust of everyone who donated and the public who supported her fraudulent charity.”
She was charged in 2022 alongside her husband, Clark Grant, who died in a motorcycle accident the following year.