Waste of the Day: $ for Baltimore Mayor’s Wife

Hana Scott, Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott’s wife, received $51,000 in taxpayer money from a local nonprofit from 2024 to 2025, according to documents obtained by FOX45 News.

Money laundering for the wife of a big-city mayor?

Key facts: Baltimore’s oft-criticized Children and Youth Fund gave $300,000 to the Bmore Empowered nonprofit in recent years, where Hana Scott worked from 2021 to 2025.

Bmore Empowered awarded some of the money to Beadly Speaking, a different nonprofit that hosts jewelry-making classes to teach kids about entrepreneurship.

Records show that Beadly Speaking later paid $51,000 to Hana Scott in a 13-month period. The payments began in August 2024, the same month Hana Scott married the mayor.

It’s unclear what the money was for. Hana Scott, Beadly Speaking and Bmore Empowered did not return questions from FOX45. Mayor Scott called the news station’s reporting “tomfoolery.”

Mayor Scott’s financial disclosures from 2024 and 2025 did not state that his wife worked at Bmore Empowered. They listed only her role at Pugh Insights, her private consulting firm.

Bmore Empowered closed down in February 2026, citing fundraising issues. The nonprofit had also drawn public scrutiny related to Hana Scott’s role, its delinquent registration status with the Maryland Secretary of State and lawsuits over unpaid rent.

Search all federal, state and local salaries and vendor spending with the world’s largest government spending database at OpenTheBooks.com. 

Mayor Scott made that money laundering possible

Background: FOX45 reported in September 2025 that Bmore Empowered had received taxpayer money while employing Hana Scott, though it was unknown at that time that Hana Scott personally benefited. 

Following the report, Baltimore City Council introduced a bill in October 2025 that strengthened oversight of the Children & Youth Fund. The original version of the bill would have made it illegal for the Youth Fund to send money to any charity that employs the family member of a top city official. Mayor Scott opposed that provision, and the bill later passed with an amendment that allowed payments to family members.

Summary: Apparent conflicts of interest are all too common in local governance, and ignoring questions from the public only increases the need for accountability.

This article was originally published by RealClearInvestigations and made available via RealClearWire.