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Tania Fernandes Anderson allegedly received approximately $7,000 through a kickback scheme involving a family member she had hired as part of her staff.

Boston City Councilwoman Tania Fernandes Anderson was arrested Friday morning on federal public corruption charges, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

Fernandes Anderson was charged with five counts of aiding and abetting wire fraud and one count of aiding and abetting theft in connection with programs receiving federal funds, according to the indictment unsealed Friday.

Prosecutors say Fernandes Anderson devised and proposed a kickback scheme involving a family member she had hired as part of her staff. The program involved paying a large bonus to the family member with the agreement that $7,000 of it would be returned to the city council.

“When her voters elected Ms. Fernandes Anderson, she had a fundamental commitment to act with the utmost integrity. “Public officials who line their pockets with taxpayer dollars undermine the public’s trust in the officers who serve them,” U.S. Attorney Joshua S. Levy said at a news conference Friday morning.

On Wednesday, Fernandes Anderson — who represents District 7 consisting of Roxbury, Dorchester, Fenway and part of the South End — acknowledged reports of the federal investigation but said she has no intention of resigning, Boston.com previously reported.

She was arrested just after 6 a.m. Friday morning, said Stephen Kelleher, assistant special agent in charge of the FBI’s Boston office.

“In this commonwealth and in this country, our elected officials work for us, not the other way around,” Kelleher said. “The conduct we allege in today’s indictment is a slap in the face to the hardworking taxpayers of the City of Boston, who have a right to expect that the City’s coffers are in good and honest hands.”

In 2022, she admitted to hiring her sister and son for paid positions on her staff, the state ethics commission said at the time. Fernandes Anderson was forced to terminate his employment in August 2022 and was later ordered to pay a $5,000 civil penalty.

Another family member was hired around November 2022, but Fernandes Anderson emailed a city employee about her hiring and said they were not related, the indictment says. Prosecutors said that person was not an immediate family member of Fernandes Anderson.

From early to mid-2023, Fernandes Anderson struggled to make ends meet. She missed monthly rent and car payments, incurred overdraft fees and faced a $5,000 civil penalty, according to the indictment. She told the new employee that she would pay them extra wages in the form of a large bonus, but that they would have to give some of it back to her. They agreed to the agreement.

Around this time, Fernandes Anderson also began requiring her employees to sign nondisclosure agreements as a condition of employment. According to the indictment, they were prohibited from disclosing “confidential information” to anyone without Fernandes Anderson’s permission. Levy said this practice struck investigators as “unusual.”

Information about staff bonuses was publicly available, so Fernandes Anderson informed her employees in May 2023 that they would receive bonuses. She told them that the employee involved in the scheme would receive a larger bonus because Fernandes Anderson wanted to pay her for her previous volunteer work, according to the indictment. This bonus was $13,000, more than double the total amount of bonus payments to her other employees combined.

The city issued the employee the bonus check at the end of May 2023, which amounted to approximately $10,200 after taxes. They deposited the check into a bank account and, at the direction of Fernandes Anderson, made a series of separate cash withdrawals on different dates. According to the indictment, a total of $3,000 was withdrawn on May 31, another $3,000 on June 5 and $4,000 on June 9.

Fernandes Anderson and the employee arranged to meet in a restroom at City Hall on June 9 to hand over about $7,000 in cash to the city council. At 4:11 p.m., the employee sent Fernandes Anderson a text message with the word “bathroom,” to which she replied “ready,” according to the lawsuit. The handover took place shortly afterwards.

An investigation is ongoing. No one else has been charged so far.

Last month, the Office of Campaign and Political Finance said Fernandes Anderson had violated several provisions of campaign finance law. Her campaign committee failed to disclose some donations on a timely basis and also collected $1,750 in excess donations in 2023 and 2024. Fernandes Anderson was ordered to return this amount to the state, which her campaign committee did. She also approved the appointment of a new treasurer of the committee.

It was found that the committee was late in clarifying certain expenses and did so only after several letters, phone calls and emails from the OCPF.

Fernandes Anderson’s committee received an additional $100 contribution from State Senator Liza Miranda’s campaign committee. This $100 was returned to Miranda’s committee.

The OCPF concluded that no further action was required from Fernandes Anderson to remedy the situation, but warned that “further instances of non-compliance could result in a referral to the Attorney General.”