Feds move to seize $13K restitution payment from disgraced ex-Boston City Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson

Gayla Cawley, Boston Herald on Jul 9, 2025

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Federal prosecutors filed an order petitioning the court to compel disgraced ex-Boston City Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson to pay $13,000 as a penalty for the City Hall kickback scheme she was convicted for this past May.

U.S. Attorney Leah Foley filed a motion for order of forfeiture (money judgment) in federal court Wednesday that states the government will seize the ex-councilor’s assets and property up to $13,000, if Fernandes Anderson is unable to produce the restitution payment both sides agreed upon as part of a plea deal in early April.

“Based upon the defendant’s admissions in the written plea agreement and her guilty plea on May 5, 2025, the United States is entitled to an order of forfeiture consisting of a personal money judgment against the defendant, in the amount of $13,000,” Foley wrote in the filing. “This amount represents the proceeds of the defendant’s crimes.”

Citing the federal rules of criminal procedure, Foley said forfeiture can take several forms, including the amount of money the defendant obtained as proceeds of her offense, specific assets related to her criminal activity, or “substitute assets” if the specific assets are not available.

“Once the order of forfeiture is entered, the United States may move at any time … to amend the order to forfeit specific property of the defendant, having a value up to the amount of the money judgment,” Foley’s filing states.

A money judgment, issuance of which the U.S. Attorney’s office is seeking from Boston federal court, permits the government to collect on the forfeiture order, Foley wrote.

“Even if a defendant does not have sufficient funds to cover the forfeiture at the time of the conviction, the government may seize future assets to satisfy the order,” Foley wrote, referencing a 2009 federal court ruling with such language.

Fernandes Anderson, 46, pleaded guilty on May 5 to two of six public corruption felony charges that were lodged against her in a federal indictment last December, when she was also arrested by the feds outside her Dorchester home.

The ex-councilor agreed to plead guilty to two of the charges — one count of wire fraud and one count of theft concerning a federal program — as part of a plea deal with the U.S. Attorney’s office. The four other wire fraud charges were dropped as part of the deal she entered into with federal prosecutors in early April.

The charges are tied to a kickback scheme Fernandes Anderson carried out at City Hall two years ago. The then-councilor doled out a $13,000 bonus to one of her Council staffers, a relative but not immediate family member, on the condition that $7,000 be kicked back to her. The handoff was coordinated by text and took place in a City Hall bathroom in June 2023, the federal indictment states.

The federal indictment mentions that Fernandes Anderson may have been motivated, in part, by the “personal financial difficulty” she was facing. Fernandes Anderson was staring down an impending $5,000 fine for a state ethics violation around that time period, for hiring two immediate family members to her City Council staff, giving them raises, and in the case of her sister, a bonus.

Fernandes Anderson was paid a $120,000 salary as a city councilor and represented District 7, which includes Roxbury, Dorchester, Fenway and part of the South End. Her resignation from the body took effect on July 4.

The ex-councilor is set to be sentenced in federal court on July 29. U.S. Attorney Leah Foley has recommended that the ex-councilor be sentenced to a year and a day in prison and ordered to pay $13,000 in restitution.

The federal judge presiding over the case has warned Fernandes Anderson that she can opt not to take the prosecution’s recommendation and impose a harsher sentence than outlined in the plea agreement.

The charge of wire fraud can carry a sentence of up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, while the sentence for a charge of theft concerning programs receiving federal funds can go up to 10 years in prison, along with carrying a fine up to $250,000.

Fernandes Anderson submitted her letter of resignation to the city on June 12, six weeks after her felony conviction. She defied calls to resign for months, which were leveled by Mayor Michelle Wu and five city councilors, including the council president, immediately after her arrest and indictment last December.

Councilors can be removed from the body only after sentencing for a felony, rather than conviction, per state law.

Fernandes Anderson was the first Muslim American, African immigrant and formerly undocumented person to be elected to the City Council, and first took office in January 2022.

Her resignation took effect during her second term, and will leave a vacancy on the City Council until the next District 7 councilor is elected in November.

The City Council held its first meeting without Fernandes Anderson on Wednesday.

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