A Boston City Council member was arrested on federal public corruption charges, and her husband is already in jail for murder charges.
City Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson was arrested Friday morning on federal corruption charges. Fernandes Anderson is accused of taking a $7,000 kickback and hiring family members. Her husband, Tanzerious Anderson, is already in jail after he was found guilty of murder in the first degree in 2002.
At about 7 a.m. Friday, FBI Boston posted to X, formerly known as Twitter, that special agents had arrested a city councilor “on federal public corruption charges.” The agency held a press conference at 9:30 a.m. at the federal courthouse in Boston.
Fernandes Anderson, 45, who represents Roxbury, Dorchester, Fenway and parts of the South End, was charged with five counts of wire fraud and one count of theft around programs receiving federal funds.
The indictment alleges that Fernandes Anderson started a kickback scheme after hiring a relative who “was not an immediate family member” in 2022. Fernandes Anderson is also accused of hiding that she was related to the staff member.
AP Photo/Steven Senne
She allegedly agreed to pay the familial staffer a large bonus on the condition that a portion would be returned to her.
According to text messages, the city councilor allegedly accepted $7,000 in cash back during a meeting in a bathroom at Boston City Hall in 2023.
“All of that money was funded by the taxpayers of the city of Boston,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts announced at the press conference.
The city councilor allegedly told her staff that they would all be receiving bonuses but that the staff member she’s related to would receive a larger amount because she wanted to pay them “for their prior volunteer work.”
At the time, Fernandes Anderson was allegedly having money problems, partially due to a $5,000 sanction imposed by the State Evidence Commission and other “financial hardships.” She is paid $115,000 a year as a city councilor.
“When faced with financial hardship and that $5,000 State Evidence Commission sanction, Ms. Fernandes Anderson chose to violate her fiduciary duty and fraud the city of Boston, the indictment alleges, rather than finding the legal means to pay off that debt,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. “Public service is a privilege, and all of us in public service have a duty to act with integrity and fairness in all that we do.”
Fernandes Anderson is scheduled to appear in Boston federal court at 3 p.m. on Friday.
Tanzerious Anderson, the city councilor’s husband, is in jail for murder in the first degree, armed robbery and illegal possession of a firearm. He was found guilty as a principal and joint venturer in the crimes.
According to court documents, on March 25, 2000, Anderson and 16-year-old Joleena Tate broke into a condominium in North Conway, New Hampshire, that belonged to Tate’s father. They stole firearms and ammunition, including a .357 Magnum revolver.
Two days later, Anderson brought Tate to the home of Edward Gauthier, whom he knew through Jason Robinson, the man Anderson was working with.
“The group was in Gauthier’s room playing video games and together smoked three or four ‘blunts,’ cigars stuffed with marijuana,” the court documents read. “At some point in the evening, as the defendant was preparing to leave, Tate asked him if he wanted to ‘rob someone.’ The defendant agreed.”
The court documents state that Anderson, Tate and Robinson decided to contact a Lebanese immigrant and ask him to meet. Tate would bring the victim to the apartment in Brighton, where Anderson and Robinson would be waiting.
The victim took Tate out to dinner, and then Tate requested that he drive her to the designated building. When Anderson and Robinson showed up, Tate said to the victim, “We’re being robbed,” and then walked to a nearby playground.
A few minutes later, Tate heard “a very loud noise,” and when she met up with her accomplices, Anderson said “He’s murked (dead)” and that “I got my body for the summer.”
“The medical examiner determined that death was caused by the victim’s heart stopping as a reflexive reaction to the gunshot, and that death was instantaneous,” the court document reads.
Anderson was arrested on April 4, 2000. In court, he had argued that the victim died “instantaneously” and that with no evidence of defensive wounds, there was insufficient evidence.
There was another trial in 2017, but Anderson was still found guilty.
BOSTON (WHDH) – Police are investigating a shooting in Downtown Crossing that occurred Thursday night.
Officials said the shooting occurred around 10:30 p.m. near Tremont and Temple Streets.
When officers arrived on scene, they found a man with a gunshot wound; he is expected to survive.
Police have not said if any arrests have been made.
(Copyright (c) 2026 Sunbeam Television. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
Local News
An East Boston father is suing ICE, alleging immigration agents unlawfully stopped, arrested, and detained him because of his race and national origin despite having his legal status, his lawyers said.
Lawyers for Civil Rights filed the lawsuit Thursday on behalf of Jose Pineda, a 62-year-old Salvadoran immigrant who has lived in the U.S. for more than three decades and is authorized to remain and work through humanitarian relief, the nonprofit legal organization said in a press release.
The suit is seeking damages under the Federal Tort Claims Act, alleging false arrest, false imprisonment, assault, and severe emotional distress.
“I came to the United States to escape the civil war that devastated El Salvador. I worked hard, started a family, and built a life here,” said Pineda, who works as a landscaper and lives with his wife and 13-year-old daughter. “I never expected to feel that kind of fear again, much less in the United States.”
According to the 30-page complaint, written by LCR senior attorneys Victoria Miranda and Mirian Albert, Pineda has been a recipient of Temporary Protected Status, which allows certain foreign nationals from designated countries to live and work legally in the U.S.
Pineda also had a pending asylum petition and had been granted a T visa, which provides immigration protections to trafficking victims, the complaint states.
“We will not stand idly by as ICE wreaks havoc on immigrant families. Through racial profiling, ICE agents are carrying out an unquestionably discriminatory agenda,” Miranda said in the release. “The law exists to protect people like Mr. Pineda, and it must be enforced against ICE.”
The lawsuit stems from a May 2025 encounter in Weymouth, where Pineda was driving a landscaping truck to a job site when agents in unmarked ICE vehicles surrounded him, according to the complaint.
“The aggressive nature of the questioning made it clear to Mr. Pineda that he was not being judged based on any evidence of unlawful conduct, but rather on his identity, race, ethnicity, and/or national origin,” Pineda’s attorneys wrote.
The lawsuit alleges ICE officers then “forcibly” handcuffed and shackled Pineda before taking him to the agency’s field office in Burlington.
Officers searched Pineda’s belongings during the stop and again at the field office, allegedly confiscating $600 in cash that he intended to use to pay his family’s rent. The money has not been returned, according to the complaint.
Pineda spent two days in ICE custody under what the lawsuit describes as “cruel and inhumane conditions.”
“After what ICE did to me, and after everything my family has endured, I don’t know if I will ever truly feel safe again,” Pineda said.
According to the complaint, he was held in severely overcrowded cells containing more than 40 people — at times as many as 60 — leaving little room to sit and forcing him to remain standing for much of his detention. Detainees also allegedly shared a single toilet and sink without soap or toilet paper and were not provided toothbrushes, clean clothes, or showers.
Fluorescent lights remained on around the clock, making it difficult to sleep, while temperatures became “extremely cold” overnight and some detainees received only aluminum blanekts for warmth, the complaint states.
Pineda was given only a two-minute phone call during his detention and received two bottles of water each day, along with “inadequate and limited” food and water, according to the complaint.
“Mr. Pineda has suffered devastating and ongoing physical and emotional harm that has impacted all aspects of his life,” his attorneys wrote. “Mr. Pineda brings this action to seek accountability for these violent and traumatizing tortious acts of the ICE officers and to address the harms inflicted upon him.”
According to LCR, Pineda was released following advocacy by Centro Presente, a Massachusetts immigrant rights organization.
After his release, ICE initiated removal proceedings against him depsite his humanitarian protections, the organization said. Those proceedings were ultimately dismissed.
“ICE targeted Mr. Pineda based on nothing more than his perceived national origin and the nature of his work,” Albert said in the press release. “Our laws prohibit this kind of arbitrary and discriminatory enforcement. Through this lawsuit, we seek to hold the federal government accountable for the violence and harm inflicted on Mr. Pineda.”
ICE referred questions about the lawsuit to the Department of Homeland Security. DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday evening.
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BOSTON (WHDH) – A pedestrian was hit and killed in Roxbury Thursday morning.
The collision occurred just before 8:20 a.m. on Tremont Street.
Police said Tremont Street was closed in both directions between Brigham Circle and Roxbury Crossing.
This is a developing news story; stay with 7NEWS on-air and online for the latest details.
(Copyright (c) 2026 Sunbeam Television. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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