BLM leader, 'Bostonian of the Year' ordered to pay $224,000 for stealing donations to her own non-profit

A woman who was named "Bostonian of the Year" in 2020 has been ordered to pay back $224,000 that she stole from her own nonprofit organization.

Monica Cannon-Grant, a BLM activist who rose in prominence amid the Black Lives Matter riots and protests in 2020, was ordered on Monday by a judge to pay back every dollar that she diverted from her nonprofit to herself. Cannon-Grant has been found guilty of diverting donations to herself, pocketing rental assistance when she was not entitled to it, as well as fraudulently collecting unemployment benefits, per the Mass Daily News.

In total, she has been ordered to pay back $224,000. The amount includes $181,000 of donations that she diverted from her nonprofit, Violence in Boston Inc, to herself.

Additionally, she obtained $33,000 in fraudulent unemployment payments and about $12,600 in rental assistance. In January, she was ordered by US District Court Judge Angel Kelley to pay $106,000 in restitution. She was then given four years of probation, six months of home detention, as well as 100 hours of community service. Cannon Grant got no prison time after prosecutors asked for her to get 18 months in prison.

The nonprofit from Cannon-Grant, Violence in Boston Inc, was founded in 2017. But in 2020, as she organized a protest and drew thousands over Black Lives Matter, the organization grew and she was able to pick up some awards, later becoming the Boston Globe’s Bostonian of the Year.

However, behind all of that, she and her husband were profiting from fraud and abuse of the nonprofit they had set up. They dined out, went on expensive vacations, and treated themselves to other luxuries.

When they raised $1 million for the charity as well as $60,000 in pandemic relief funds, they used it for themselves. At her sentencing in January, Cannon-Grant pleaded guilty to 18 counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, mail fraud, and tax violations.