BOSTON — Boston City Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson pleaded guilty Monday to federal corruption charges tied to a $7,000 kickback scheme she carried out at City Hall and she is eyeing late June for her Council resignation to become effective.

Fernandes Anderson, 46, choked back tears as she formally pleaded guilty in federal court to two of six charges — one count of wire fraud and one count of theft concerning a federal program — that had been lodged against her in a December 2024 federal indictment.

The second-term city councilor and progressive Democrat accepted a plea agreement with the U.S. Attorney’s office early last month, with a recommendation from prosecutors that she be sentenced to a year and a day in prison and ordered to pay $13,000 in restitution.

In the plea deal, prosecutors agreed to drop four wire fraud charges leveled against Fernandes Anderson when she was federally indicted and arrested last December. The councilor had initially pleaded not guilty to all six charges.

U.S. District Court Judge Indira Talwani accepted Fernandes Anderson’s guilty plea, but warned the councilor that she was under no obligation to accept the U.S. Attorney’s recommended sentence, and could choose to issue a harsher punishment on July 29, when her sentencing was scheduled.

The charge of wire fraud can carry a sentence 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 a $250,000.

“Councilor Fernandes Anderson abused her position of trust for personal gain and turned a public checkbook into her own private slush fund,” U.S. Attorney Leah Foley said in a statement issued after the day’s proceedings. “Her constituents deserve better than this. They deserve a city representative who respects the role of public service and does not use the power and position to line her own pockets.

“Her guilty plea today says what she refuses to admit in her media interviews: she broke the law, lied to the public, and used her office for her own personal gain. Ms. Fernandes Anderson leaves a legacy not of a selfless trailblazer, but one of fraud, greed and deceit. The United States Attorney’s Office is committed to ensuring elected officials are held accountable for this kind of corruption and dishonesty.”

Fernandes Anderson said last month that she planned to resign from her $120,000 seat at an undisclosed date when the plea deal and her guilty plea was made public through a federal court filing.

She told reporters outside the courthouse Monday that she was not planning to stay on as a city councilor until her late July sentencing date.

Rather, she was eyeing some time in June, after the mayor’s proposed $4.8 billion budget goes through the City Council process, saying that Roxbury-centric District 7, which she represents, “deserves a budget vote.” The city’s operating budget has to be approved by the City Council, which has the authority to amend, reject and approve the mayor’s spending plan, by June 30, for it to take effect on July 1.

“It really hasn’t been about me,” Fernandes Anderson said. “I was trying to resign immediately and my advisory council advised that District 7 doesn’t deserve not to have a vote in the budget. … It looks like in June, once we get the budget out of the way.”

A special election for her District 7 seat — which includes Roxbury, Dorchester, Fenway and part of the South End and which Fernandes Anderson has represented since January 2022 — would not be triggered by the city charter, given that the councilor does not intend to resign by May 8.

Councilors can only be removed from the body after sentencing takes place.

Following the indictment, Mayor Michelle Wu and five city councilors, including Council President Ruthzee Louijeune, swiftly called for Fernandes Anderson’s resignation. At the time, she defied those calls and addressed the ones that were made by her colleagues after her plea.

“I would say to those colleagues … Everyone has a right to their own opinion,” Fernandes Anderson said. “You know, politics is a funny thing. People have to say things, because they feel the pressure. Maybe you guys wouldn’t have been so kind to Councilor Louijeune if she didn’t say anything, right, because she is Black, because she is the Council president.

“Maybe you wouldn’t have been so kind. You would have pushed her, or said she wasn’t a good leader, or something like that. You know how the world is harsher,” the councilor said.

On hand to support Fernandes Anderson at court were state Sen. Liz Miranda and state Rep. Russell Holmes. Afterwards, Holmes addressed a question about why it was important for him to be there.

“When folks are going through tragedy, they need to have the people who love and support them around them, even when it’s a difficult time,” Holmes said. “Of course I’m disappointed, but as you heard today, she has pled guilty, and now we’re going to hope that the judge is lenient and don’t lean towards the most egregious ways that she can be charged.”

Fernandes Anderson pleaded guilty to charges tied to allegations made by the federal government that she gave one of her staff members, described as a relative but not immediate family member, a $13,000 bonus 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, prosecutors said.

The federal indictment mentions that Fernandes Anderson may have been motivated, in part, by the “personal financial difficulty” she was facing at the time. 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.

The facts of the federal corruption case were read into the record by Assistant U.S. Attorney John Mulcahy, who mentioned that Fernandes Anderson told her staff that the relevant staff member was receiving a larger bonus, more than twice as much as the other staff bonuses combined, due to the staffer’s fire volunteer work

The kickback arrangement was not disclosed to the staff member, who received a roughly $10,000 check in the spring of 2023 that included the bonus and regular weekly pay, and was approved as part of a City Council personnel order filed by Fernandes Anderson that did not disclose that funds would be kicked back to her, Mulcahey said.

Three separate withdrawals of $3,000, $3,000 and $4,000 were made by the staff member on three separate occasions in May 2023 and June 2023 at two different banks, and the handoff took place with Fernandes Anderson at City Hall in June, Mulcahy said.

Mulcahy was cut off by the judge when he began to state facts of the plea deal that were not included in the indictment, that, in 2022 and 2023, Fernandes Anderson used funds from her campaign account for her own personal enrichment, and not for campaign-related expenses, and filed fraudulent federal income tax returns with the IRS in 2021, 2022 and 2023.

“Let’s stick to the indictment, because that’s what she’s pleading guilty to,” Talwani, the federal court judge, said.

Fernandes Anderson, the first Muslim-American, African immigrant and formerly undocumented person to be elected to the City Council, said she was “praying” and “walking with God” as she was walking to the courthouse ahead of her plea.

Afterwards, when asked whether there was a lesson she had taken from the situation, Fernandes Anderson was reflective, but didn’t admit fault.

“I was listening to an interview the other day, about being grateful to God for your experiences,” she said. “And in order for you to accept the good, you have to also be grateful for the pain.”

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