A leader of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) organization is being accused of stealing $10 million from the group in a lawsuit, according to reports.
The lawsuit from former colleagues called Shalomyah Bowers a “rogue administrator, a middle man turned usurper,” claiming that she led BLM into “multiple investigations by the Internal Revenue Service 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 suit added, which was filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court on Thursday by a group calling itself Black Lives Grassroots.
In response to the lawsuit, the board of directors of BLM denied the accusations in a joint statement, saying: “They would rather take the same steps of our white oppressors and utilize the criminal legal system which is propped up by white supremacy (the same system they say they want to dismantle) to solve movement disputes.”
BLM co-founder Melina Abdullah told reporters on Thursday that Bowers had shut her out of control of the organization’s social media accounts. Bowers then fired back with a statement accusing Abdullah of financial malfeasance.
This comes after BLM purchased an overpriced California mansion using donation money earlier this year, prompting calls for an investigation.
The group reportedly bought the California house from a real estate developer who worked for BLM co-founder Patrisse Cullors and her wife, paying him $5.8 million. The developer also bought the same property for only $3.1 million just days earlier.
Following the scandalous report, California Representative Darrell Issa urged the Department of Justice (DOJ) to launch an investigation.
“The disturbing information that we are learning is more than enough to warrant an investigation from the DOJ — and doubtless not the end of all there is to know,” Issa said. “This definitely has the suggestion of misappropriation of charitable funds and an abuse of our nonprofit laws.”
This isn’t the first time that the organization exhibited a typical lack of morals and enjoyed lives of luxury at the cost of the general public. In February of last year, BLM said it raised over $90 million in donations the previous year, with $60 million still on hand. However, they have not disclosed where the remaining money went.
