Organizers taking part in the Black Lives Matter movement decided to file a lawsuit against a prominent leader in the movement after it has been revealed that he stole more than $10 million dollars from the organization’s ‘piggy bank’.
Board members of the organization decided to file a lawsuit against Shalomyah Bowers, a board member of the movement, in the Los Angeles court after they found out about his regular manipulations with the movement’s fund.
Black Lives Matter Leader Accused Of Stealing $10 Million Dollars From The Organization
Donations and gifts are the usual way of funding the movement. The lawsuit filed against the board member reveals that the BLM organization has cashed in more than $90 million in 2020 only. Having this number in mind it is not hard to imagine that someone can take advantage of the funds with manipulations and the transfer of funds.
In addition, if no one keeps a close eye on the transactions the fund may be very easily used as a ‘personal bank’, or a personal credit card with no limit. As it turns out, this is the exact thing that happened.
“Through a series of misrepresentations and unauthorized backroom dealings, Mr. Bowers managed to steal control over GNF as the sole Board member and officer.” – the lawsuit states.
The Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation is the main national fundraiser through which the funds are being forwarded to the BLM Grassroots leaders, which then divide the funds to the smaller partitions of the organization, working directly ‘on the field’.
The situation is such, that now both parties, The Global Network Foundation, and the Grassroots leaders accuse mutually of damaging the movement and most importantly, acting as a tool of white supremacy.
Imagine the irony. While the mass audience thinks that the movement is acquiring funds for raising awareness and arranging events and conferences, the BLM Global Network Foundation spends money on things that are very hard to be justified and explained.
The foundation spent an incredible amount of $6 million for a Los Angeles mansion. Another $6.3 million on an additional 10 000sf property in Toronto. This led to nothing less, but the resignation of the co-founder of the movement, Patrisse Cullors.
According to Cullors, the foundation has seen an astonishing amount of money being literally poured into the BLM fund. This is the sole reason she needed to ‘employ’ Bowers as a board member who will keep track of the funds and help raise even more money for the organization.
However, things did not go as expected. Shalomyah Bowers happens to turn ‘roque’ at one point of his time on the board. He used the organization’s funds as his own. Amongst other things, he registered his own company for consulting that checked in more than $2 million from the organization in 2020 only.
“While BLM leaders and movement workers were on the street risking their lives, Mr. Bowers remained in his cushy offices. He devised a scheme of fraud and misrepresentation to break the implied-in-fact contract between donors and BLM.” – the opening statement of the lawsuit against Bowers states.
People accuse the movement of being out of touch on many points, intra-organizationally. Melina Abdullah slammed the BLM Global Network Foundation, claiming that the group is not doing its job.
“Individuals took away the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation away from the people who built it.” Melina claims. “Highly paid consultants are the ones that lead Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation now. A consultant who paid himself upward of $2 million in a single year. Mr. Bowers and the GNF Leadership Council agreed to execute the transition plan set forth by Ms. Cullors.” –she adds. “However, Mr. Bowers cashed $2,167,894 million dollars from GNF in less than eight months. He decided he wanted to keep the ‘piggy bank’ that GNF had become to him and his company.”
The Black Lives Matter movement is a major one. The movement cashed in more than $40 million in the period between July 2020 and June 2021. We can grasp the idea of how major the movement is by acknowledging this fact only. When we have the appearance of such large sums of money donations, there is a possibility of ‘flipping’ of board members. That’s what BLM should be looking at, and that’s on what they should focus on. The current net worth of the organization is enough for making a considerable impact on society. They just need to find the right people to do so.
The organization acquired a $6 million ‘mansion’ last year. The description for the need of a such mansion is that black artists fellowship will use it as a campus. And at the moment the organization claims that the purpose of the real estate is as described. However, the money spent on it seems a little bit off the charts.
Why would they need a place that has six bedrooms, bathrooms, a swimming pool, a soundstage, and office space? The campus explanation gets them somewhere in the justification of spent funds. However, what would be wrong with a $1 million real estate? Estate in a cheaper area, equipped only with the essentials for a pleasant stay.
This shocking buy is the first one that BLM foundation’s money bought.
At the time, the organization was under the fiscal sponsorship of charity. As such, there was no need of submitting its financials publicly. However, now things are a little bit different. The movement is now a nonprofit organization since December 2020, and as such needs to disclose this documentation regularly. Let’s hope that this will help in making the transactions more transparent.
