Boston city councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson was arrested Friday on federal fraud charges, accused of funneling part of an inflated bonus payment to a staffer to whom she was related into her own pockets during an exchange at a City Hall bathroom, the U.S. attorney’s office said.
Anderson, who was facing financial problems, was arrested outside her home on five counts of wire fraud and one count of theft concerning a program receiving federal funds, U.S. Attorney Joshua Levy said at a news conference.
Fernandes Anderson, a Democrat representing Boston’s 7th District, sparked outrage in October 2023 when she introduced a City Council resolution describing the brutal Hamas attack on Israel—which killed over 1,200 civilians, including women and children—as a “military operation.” The resolution accused Israel of “apartheid” and “war crimes” and called for an immediate ceasefire, drawing fierce condemnation from colleagues.
When questioned, Fernandes Anderson defended her resolution by invoking a bizarre and widely debunked conspiracy theory, claiming, “Arabs are Semites, so antisemitism applies totally to Arabs. And it applies to the original Jews, the Black people in Ethiopia.”
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