A month before she was set to go on trial in federal court on numerous fraud charges, Monica Cannon-Grant, the former leader of the Violence in Boston nonprofit, filed notice that she intends to plead guilty, court records show.
The one-page filing from Cannon-Grant’s lawyer does not indicate the exact contours of a potential plea agreement with the government. But the motion asking a judge to set a hearing where Cannon-Grant could change her plea was agreed to by federal prosecutors, records show. A date for the hearing has not been set.
Cannon-Grant faces a laundry list of charges in federal court, including conspiracy to commit wire fraud, aiding and abetting wire fraud and conspiracy to make false statements to a mortgage lending business.
Read more: Boston activist Monica Cannon-Grant, husband used Violence in Boston nonprofit funds to pay for rent, vacations, nail care, hundreds of UberEats orders, feds say
Prosecutors have said Cannon-Grant and her late husband, Clark Grant, used the nonprofit they cofounded, Violence in Boston, “as a vehicle” to pay for everything from nail care and hotel vacations to thousands of dollars in meals at Bubba Gump Shrimp, Shake Shack and other restaurants.
The Boston-based nonprofit, founded and operated by the husband and wife, aimed to reduce violence and raise awareness for community issues in Boston.
Cannon-Grant and Grant received public and private funding and donations to support their mission, but instead used the money on hotels, groceries, gas, car rentals, car repairs, Uber rides, meals, food deliveries and vacations, federal investigators said.
They did not tell the other employees of Violence in Boston, the organization’s bookkeepers or financial auditors that they had used the money for personal reasons.
The pair was arrested in March 2022.
The nonprofit shut down months later, in July of 2022.
Former Boston nonprofit leader to plead guilty to federal fraud charges
