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A well-known community and social justice activist who founded a Boston nonprofit to reduce violence and who was once was lauded as Bostonian of the Year avoided jail time in a federal fraud case, the Justice Department said Thursday.
Monica Cannon-Grant, 44, pleaded guilty in September 2025 to 18 of 27 counts, including wire fraud, mail fraud and failing to file tax returns related to a scheme in which Cannon-Grant and her late husband, Clark Grant, pocketed thousands of dollars in donations to their nonprofit.
She was sentenced Thursday to four years probation. She was also ordered to pay $106,003 in restitution.
Federal prosecutors recommended US District Court Judge Angel Kelley sentence Cannon-Grant to 18 months in prison.
“Ms. Cannon-Grant’s actions were crimes of greed and opportunity,” said Nicolas Bucciarelli, acting inspector in charge of the US Postal Inspection Service’s Boston Division.
Cannon-Grant and her husband were accused of diverting COVID-relief and rental assistance funds from their Violence in Boston nonprofit for personal expenses and collecting about $100,000 in illegal unemployment benefits, among other charges.
Along with her late husband, the pair founded VIB, an anti-violence nonprofit dedicated to raising social awareness and aiding community causes in Boston, federal prosecutors said.
The couple received nearly $54,000 in pandemic relief funds, authorities said. They also allegedly used some of the nonprofit’s funds to pay their auto loan and auto insurance bills.
They also conspired to defraud Boston’s Office of Housing Stability by misrepresenting their household income in an effort to obtain $12,600 in rental assistance and the Massachusetts Department of Unemployment Assistance by submitting forged employment documents so that another family member could receive nearly $44,000 in unemployment assistance.
Cannon-Grant also filed false tax returns for 2017 and 2018 and failed to file tax returns for 2019 and 2020, prosecutors said.
Cannon-Grant was well-known in activist circles in Boston, earning numerous awards, including Boston Globe Magazine’s Bostonian of the Year award and a Boston Celtics Heroes Among Us award, both in 2020 amid nationwide protests following the killing of George Floyd.
In 2022, after Cannon-Grant’s indictment, VIB said it had suspended all programs and was shutting down, but its Facebook page has been frequently active since.
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