波士顿市议员因涉嫌回扣计划被联邦指控被捕
【中美创新时报2024 年 12 月 6 日编译讯】（记者温友平编译）美国检察官办公室宣布，波士顿市议员塔尼亚·费尔南德斯·安德森（Tania Fernandes Anderson）于周五上午被 FBI 特工逮捕，并将于当天晚些时候在南波士顿的 Moakley 法院出庭接受联邦指控。《波士顿环球报》记者Danny McDonald 和 Shelley Murphy 对此作了下述报道。
根据周五公布的起诉书，45 岁的 Fernandes Anderson 被控五项协助和教唆电信欺诈罪和一项协助和教唆盗窃联邦资金罪，罪名与回扣计划有关。
检察官称，该议员于 2022 年雇用了一名亲戚，然后在 2023 年给了她 13,000 美元的奖金，并期望她将部分奖金以现金形式回扣给 Fernandes Anderson。
“这笔巨额奖金来得有点麻烦，”美国检察官 Joshua Levy 在周五的新闻发布会上说。Fernandes Anderson 告诉起诉书中称为工作人员 A 的工作人员，“她需要向她返还 7,000 美元现金”，他说。
根据起诉书，两人于 2023 年 6 月 9 日在市政厅的卫生间见面，据称工作人员在那里交出了 7,000 美元现金。
联邦检察官称，2023 年，费尔南德斯·安德森 (Fernandes Anderson) 财务困难，无法支付房租和汽车费用，面临银行透支费用，并因之前雇用亲属为其议会工作人员而被州道德委员会罚款 5,000 美元。
图片：12 月 4 日，波士顿市议员塔尼亚·费尔南德斯·安德森 (Tania Fernandes Anderson) 在波士顿市政厅接受媒体采访。John Tlumacki/Globe 工作人员
起诉书标志着这位来自罗克斯伯里的民主党人一落千丈，她在 2021 年首次当选该市立法机构时打破了多重玻璃天花板。她是波士顿历史上第一位穆斯林议员。第一位前无证移民。第一位非洲移民。
在她创造历史的选举后的几周里，她兴高采烈，告诉《环球报》：“我对这份工作真的很兴奋。我紧张吗？我有点紧张，只是想确保我能做好这份工作，发挥效力。”
三年后，随着联邦调查的细节浮出水面，她可能正在为自己的政治生涯而战，该调查导致对她提出指控。起诉书提供了费尔南德斯·安德森如何管理市政厅办公室的内部信息。起诉书写道，去年，她要求员工签署保密协议作为就业条件。此外，据联邦当局称，据称向她提供回扣的工作人员与她是亲戚，尽管不是她的直系亲属。检察官指控费尔南德斯·安德森在 2022 年发给一名市政府雇员的电子邮件中错误地否认两人有亲属关系。
周五早上，波士顿市长米歇尔·吴敦促费尔南德斯·安德森辞职。
“与社区的任何成员一样，议员费尔南德斯·安德森有权获得公平的法律程序，”吴在一份声明中说。 “但这些指控的严重性破坏了公众的信任，并将阻止她有效地为这座城市服务。”
与此同时，波士顿市议员艾琳·墨菲称费尔南德斯·安德森面临的指控“令人深感不安”。
墨菲在一份声明中表示：“民选官员的职责是诚实、合乎道德地代表公众，不得滥用权力谋取私利。此类行为会损害公众信任，并加剧公众认为市议会不值得我们服务对象的信任的负面想法。”
波士顿市议员约翰·菲茨杰拉德表示，市议员“当选是为了服务社区，恪守诚信和责任，遵守最高的道德标准。”
他在一份声明中表示：“任何危及这种信任的情况都令人深感担忧。我认为，此时此刻，让法律程序得以展开，让费尔南德斯·安德森议员有机会应对这些严重指控，这一点很重要。”
在周五的新闻发布会上，莱维表示，费尔南德斯·安德森在面临经济困难时“选择违反受托责任，欺骗波士顿市”。
“用纳税人的钱中饱私囊的公职人员会削弱公众的信任和信心，”他说。
费尔南德斯·安德森在担任议员期间曾面临争议，从在议会发言时辱骂到雇用违反州道德法的亲属，再到多次竞选财务失误。但没有比联邦起诉更严重的事情了。对于近年来一直饱受争议的议会来说，起诉代表了该市立法机构的法律低谷。
她是自 2008 年查克·特纳以来第一位受到联邦起诉的波士顿议员。特纳也代表第 7 区，他以黑人和拉丁裔选民的热情倡导者而闻名，但议会在 2010 年因贿赂丑闻将他免职。 （特纳后来赢得了一场诉讼，称驱逐是不恰当的。）2010 年，他因企图敲诈勒索和三项向联邦调查局特工提供虚假陈述而被判有罪，此前当局称，他接受了 1,000 美元现金，以帮助一家夜总会获得酒类经营许可证。
“这就像似曾相识一样，”联邦调查局助理特工主管斯蒂芬·凯莱赫在周五的新闻发布会上说。“另一位波士顿市议员被指控接受以牺牲公众利益为代价来赚钱的文化。”
他补充说，“没有人挑剔托尼亚·费尔南德斯·安德森和她的核心圈子。我们相信这是她自己造成的。”
在议会中，费尔南德斯·安德森以种族平等的强烈倡导者而闻名，如果她觉得她的同事的行为或立法有歧视性，她会毫不犹豫地点名批评他们。她曾公开表示，在担任民选官员期间，她曾收到过死亡威胁、侮辱先知穆罕默德的信息，以及建议她回到非洲的攻击性言论。
她坚称自己的价值观反映了她的人生故事，这是一个引人入胜的故事，她 10 岁时从佛得角搬到了波士顿。第 7 区涵盖罗克斯伯里、多切斯特、南端和芬威等多个社区，历史上是最多元化和最贫穷的议会区之一。
她是一个单亲妈妈的孩子，最初就读于南波士顿的泰南小学。她说，那是 20 世纪 90 年代初，课间休息很糟糕。她回忆说，白人孩子会欺负她，向她扔纸团。
她后来从约翰·奥布莱恩特数学与科学学校高中毕业，并从那里进入斯普林菲尔德学院。
成长过程中还有其他困难。她是无证移民。她的母亲并不总是有工作。小时候，她就知道绿卡可以让你工作。13 岁时，她花了 50 美元买了一张社会保障卡，但不知道这是非法的。
“你一直生活在恐惧之中，”她在 2021 年告诉《波士顿环球报》。
2019 年 1 月，她成为美国公民。
两年后，她成为市议会的一批新人之一。在她的第一任期内，市议会充满了敌意，而且经常以种族为界。她的大部分工作都集中在公平上。
2022 年，她提议暂时暂停罗克斯伯里公共地块的所有新开发，并因此成为头条新闻，她表示此举将使该市有机会考虑是否应将经济适用房更多地扩展到其他社区。去年，她提出了一项决议，要求市议会举行听证会，考虑重新命名法尼尔厅，法尼尔厅是一个受欢迎的旅游景点，以 18 世纪的奴隶贩子彼得·法尼尔的名字命名。
最近，她推动举行听证会，以澄清该市赔偿工作组的工作，她说：“透明的程序是修复黑人社区数十年、数百年伤害的唯一途径。”
她支持将开斋节（标志着穆斯林斋月结束的节日）定为该市的官方节日。
有时，她的政治道路坎坷不平。去年，一个周六晚上，她在阿特金森街附近停下来观察马萨诸塞和卡斯地区的帐篷营地的情况时遭到抢劫，该地区是该市毒品和无家可归问题的中心。
还有其他复杂情况，这些都是她自己造成的。
据州道德委员会称，去年，费尔南德斯·安德森承认违反了道德规范，并同意支付 5,000 美元的罚款，以支付雇用并给姐姐和儿子加薪的工资。根据协议，她承认，她于 2022 年 1 月以 65,000 美元的年薪聘请了姐姐担任选民服务主管，几个月后又给她加薪 5,000 美元，并额外给了 7,000 美元奖金。
同年 6 月，费尔南德斯·安德森还以 52,000 美元的年薪聘请了她的儿子担任办公室经理。近两周后，她将儿子的薪水提高到了 70,000 美元。
州道德委员会表示，这些举动违反了“市政雇员以公职身份参与他们知道直系亲属有经济利益的事务”的禁令。费尔南德斯·安德森于 2022 年解雇了她的儿子和妹妹。
11 月，州政府发现费尔南德斯·安德森的竞选委员会违反了州竞选财务法，未能及时披露存款并收到超额捐款。具体来说，竞选和政治财务办公室表示，2023 年 11 月至 2024 年 8 月期间，34,500 美元的竞选存款绝大多数未及时提交给州政府。此外，州政府发现，在过去两年中，三名个人捐助者和一个单独的政治委员会超过了她竞选委员会允许的最高捐款额。该州还表示，她的竞选委员会未能及时澄清支出信息。
这是一个突发新闻，将会更新。
《环球报》工作人员 Niki Griswold 和 John Ellement 对本报告做出了贡献。
题图：周五，美国国税局代理特工 Jonathan Wlodyka 与美国检察官 Joshua Levy（中间）和 FBI 助理特工 Stephen Kelleher（最左）交谈。David L. Ryan/Globe Staff
附原英文报道：
Boston City Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson arrested on federal charges in connection with alleged kickback scheme
By Danny McDonald and Shelley Murphy Globe Staff,Updated December 6, 2024
Jonathan Wlodyka, acting special agent in charge of the IRS, spoke next to US Attorney Joshua Levy, middle, FBI assistant agent in charge Stephen Kelleher, far left, on Friday.David L. Ryan/Globe Staff
Boston City Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson was arrested by FBI agents Friday morning and is set to appear in the Moakley Courthouse in South Boston later in the day to answer to federal charges, the US attorney’s office announced.
Fernandes Anderson, 45, was indicted on five counts of aiding and abetting wire fraud and one count of aiding and abetting theft of federal monies in connection with a kickback scheme, according to the indictment unsealed Friday.
The councilor hired a relative in 2022, then gave her a $13,000 bonus in 2023 with the expectation that she would kickback some of the bonus in cash to Fernandes Anderson, prosecutors allege.
“That supersize bonus came with a hitch,” US Attorney Joshua Levy said at a press conference Friday. Fernandes Anderson told the staffer, identified in the indictment as Staff Member A, “that she would need to fork over $7,000 in cash back” to her, he said.
The two met in a City Hall bathroom on June 9, 2023, where the staffer allegedly handed over $7,000 in cash, according to the indictment.
At the time in 2023, federal prosecutors allege, Fernandes Anderson was struggling financially and was missing rent and car payments, facing bank overdraft fees and a $5,000 fine from the state Ethics Commission for previously hiring relatives to her council staff.
The indictment marks a stunning fall for the Democrat from Roxbury, who broke multiple glass ceilings when first elected to the city’s legislative body in 2021. She was the first Muslim councilor in Boston’s history. The first formerly undocumented immigrant. The first African immigrant.
She was buoyant in the weeks after her history-making election, telling the Globe, “I’m really excited about the work. Am I nervous? I am a little nervous about just making sure that I do the job well and be effective.”
Three years later, she may be fighting for her political life, as details emerge of the federal probe that resulted in charges being brought against her. The indictment offers an inside glimpse of how Fernandes Anderson ran her City Hall office. Last year, she required her staff to sign non-disclosure agreements as a condition of employment, the indictment reads. Additionally, according to federal authorities, the staffer who allegedly provided her with kickbacks was related to her, although not in her immediate family. Prosecutors allege Fernandes Anderson falsely denied the two were related in a 2022 email to a city employee.
On Friday morning, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu urged Fernandes Anderson to resign.
“Like any member of the community, Councilor Fernandes Anderson has the right to a fair legal process,” said Wu in a statement. “But the serious nature of these charges undermine the public trust and will prevent her from effectively serving the city.”
Boston City Councilor Erin Murphy, meanwhile, called the allegations facing Fernandes Anderson “deeply disturbing.”
“Elected officials are entrusted with representing the public honestly and ethically, not abusing their power for personal gain,” said Murphy in a statement. “Actions like these erode public trust and perpetuate the damaging belief that our City Council is unworthy of the confidence of those we serve.”
Boston City Councilor John FitzGerald said that city councilors “are elected to serve our communities with a commitment to integrity and accountability, holding ourself to the highest ethical standards.”
“Any situation that jeopardizes that trust is profoundly concerning,” he said in a statement. “At this time I believe it is important to allow the legal process to unfold and give Councilor Fernandes Anderson the opportunity to address these serious charges.”
During Friday’s press conference, Levy said Fernandes Anderson “chose to violate her fiduciary duty and defraud the city of Boston” when faced with financial hardship.
“Public officials who line their pockets with taxpayer mone erode the trust and confidence of the public,” he said.
Fernandes Anderson has faced controversies during her time on the council, from dropping expletives on the council floor to hiring relatives in violation of state ethics law to multiple campaign finance snafus. But nothing as serious as a federal indictment. For a council that has been engulfed in controversy in recent years, the indictment represents a legal nadir for the city’s legislative body.
She is the first Boston councilor to be federally indicted since Chuck Turner in 2008. Turner, who represented District 7 as well, was known as a passionate advocate for his Black and Latino constituents, but the council removed him from office in 2010 following a bribery scandal. (Turner later won a lawsuit arguing that the expulsion was inappropriate.) He was convicted in 2010 of attempted extortion and three counts of providing false statements to FBI agents after authorities said he accepted $1,000 in cash in exchange for helping a nightclub win a liquor license.
“It’s like deja vu all over again,” FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge Stephen Kelleher said at Friday’s news conference. “Another Boston city councilor is accused of embracing a culture of cashing in at the expense of the public good.”
He added, “Nobody is picking on Tonia Fernandes Anderson and her inner circle. We believe this is a situation of her own making.”
On the council, Fernandes Anderson has a reputation as a fierce advocate for racial equity who will not hesitate in calling out her colleagues if she feels they are acting or legislating in a discriminatory manner. She has publicly shared that she received death threats, messages insulting the Prophet Muhammad, and offensive remarks suggesting she go back to Africa during her time as an elected official.
She has insisted that her values reflect her life’s narrative, a compelling story that saw her move to Boston from Cape Verde at the age of 10. District 7, which covers multiple neighborhoods including Roxbury, Dorchester, the South End, and Fenway, historically is one of the most diverse and poorest council districts.
She grew up the child of a single mother, and first attended Tynan Elementary School in South Boston. It was the early 1990s and recess was awful, she said. White children would bully and throw spitballs at her, she recalled.
She would go on to graduate high school from the John D. O’Bryant School of Mathematics and Science, and, from there, attend Springfield College.
There were other difficulties growing up. She was undocumented. Her mom was not always employed. As a child, she understood that a green card would allow you to work. At age 13, she paid $50 for a Social Security card, not knowing it was illegal.
“You’re constantly living in fear,” she told the Globe in 2021.
In January 2019, she became a US citizen.
Two years later, she was among a slate of newcomers to the City Council. During her first term, the council was defined by acrimony that often broke along racial lines. Much of her work focused on equity.
In 2022, she made headlines by proposing a temporary moratorium on all new development of Roxbury’s public parcels, saying such a move would give the city a chance to consider whether affordable housing should be spread out more to other neighborhoods. Last year, she filed a resolution asking the council to hold a hearing to consider renaming Faneuil Hall, the popular tourist attraction and namesake for 18th-century slave trader Peter Faneuil.
More recently, she pushed for a hearing to provide clarity on the work of the city’s reparations task force, saying, “A transparent process is the only way that decades of harm, centuries of harm, can begin to be repaired in the Black community.”
She has supported making Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, an official city holiday.
At times, her political road has been rocky. Last year, she was mugged as she stopped near Atkinson Street one Saturday night to observe the conditions at a tent encampment in the area known as Mass. and Cass, the center of the city’s drug and homelessness problem.
And there were other complications, these of her own creation.
Last year, Fernandes Anderson admitted to an ethics violation and agreed to pay a $5,000 fine for hiring and then giving raises to her sister and son, according to the state ethics commission. She acknowledged she hired her sister as director of constituent services at an annual salary of $65,000 in January 2022, and then gave her a $5,000 raise and a $7,000 bonus a few months later, according to the agreement.
In June of that year, Fernandes Anderson also hired her son as an office manager at $52,000 a year. She increased her son’s pay to $70,000 nearly two weeks later.
Those moves violated a prohibition against “municipal employees participating in their official capacity in matters in which they know members of their immediate family have a financial interest,” according to the state ethics commission. Fernandes Anderson terminated her son and sister in 2022.
In November, state authorities found that Fernandes Anderson’s campaign committee violated state campaign finance law by failing to disclose deposits in a timely manner and receiving excess contributions. Specifically, the Office of Campaign and Political Finance said the overwhelming bulk of $34,500 of campaign deposits between November 2023 and August 2024 were not filed with the state in a timely manner. Additionally, state authorities found three individual donors and a separate political committee exceeded the maximum allowed contributions to her campaign committee during the last two years. The state also said her campaign committee failed to clarify expenditure information in a timely manner.
This is a breaking story and will be updated.
Niki Griswold and John Ellement of the Globe staff contributed to this report.
