The Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation’s (BLMGNF) leader, Shalomyah Bowers, is being sued for allegedly stealing more than $10 million in donations to the organization. Black Lives Matter Grassroots, a nonprofit organization representing BLM chapters across the country, filed the complaint.
“Mr Bowers decided he could not let go of his piggy bank,” the lawsuit states, according to the New York Post. “Instead, he continued to betray the public trust by self-dealing and breaching his fiduciary duties.
Instead of using the donations for its intended purposes, Mr Bowers diverted these donations to his own coffers and intentionally took calculated steps to prevent those same resources from being used by BLM for on-the-ground-movement work.”
The complaint, which was filed in Los Angeles on Thursday, adds:
“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 board of directors of the BLMGNF has denied the allegations, and Bowers told the New York Post that the lawsuit is merely a “power move by someone hellbent on achieving power and control” over the BLM movement.
“Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation (BLMGNF) is here to give light and fight for Black liberation,” a statement from the BLMGNF’s board of directors reads on its website. “Make no mistake, the allegations of Melina Abdullah and BLM Grassroots (BLMGR) are false. They are slanderous and devoid of reality.”
Bowers is not the first member of the BLMGNF organization to be accused of stealing personal funds from donations. Last year, Patrisse Cullors resigned from her position after using contributions to purchase her properties.
