So many scams, so little time…
A leader of Black Lives Matter is being accused of stealing $10 million from the foundation, using it as his “personal piggy bank.”
According to a lawsuit, Shalomyah Bowers fraudulently siphoned over $10 million in “fees” to his consulting firm.
The lawsuit, which was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, says Bowers treated the BLM Global Network Foundation as his “personal piggy bank” and has acted as a “rogue administrator” and “middle man turned usurper.”
The BLM Global Network Foundation represents the national BLM movement and was the entity that received over $90 million in the wake of George Floyd’s police killing in the summer of 2020. Bowers is a close associate of BLM co-founder Patrisse Cullors, who resigned from the BLM Global Network Foundation in May 2021 amid scrutiny of her personal real estate purchases.
The Los Angeles Times noted that Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation raises funds through donations that are then distributed to Black Lives Matter Grassroots, which is “the umbrella organization for local chapters of the group.”
It also says that Bowers led BLM into multiple Internal Revenue Service investigations and “various state attorney generals, blazing a path of irreparable harm to BLM in less than eighteen months.”
“While BLM leaders and movement workers were on the street risking their lives, Mr. Bowers remained in his cushy offices devising a scheme of fraud and misrepresentation to break the implied-in-fact contract between donors and BLM,” the lawsuit reads.
The board of directors blamed white supremacy for going after a member of their BLM foundation.
“They would rather take the same steps of our white oppressors and utilize the criminal legal system which is propped up by white supremacy to solve movement disputes,” the statement said.
The investigation says that there is a shocking lack of financial transparency among the foundation.
The BLM Global Network Foundation is “like a giant ghost ship full of treasure drifting in the night with no captain, no discernible crew, and no clear direction,” CharityWatch Executive Director Laurie Styron previously said.
Leave a Comment