Black Lives Matter leader accused of stealing $10 million from organization https://www.latimes.com/california/...used-of-stealing-10-million-from-organization The leader of the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation has been accused by former colleagues of stealing more than $10 million in donations from the organization for personal use, according to a lawsuit filed in court this week. Shalomyah Bowers was called in the court filing as a “rogue administrator, a middle man turned usurper” who siphoned contributions to the nonprofit activist group to use as a “personal piggy bank,” according to the lawsuit filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court on Thursday. Bowers’ actions led the foundation into investigations by the Internal Revenue Service and various state attorneys general, “blazing a path of irreparable harm to BLM in less than eighteen months,” the suit claims. “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, filed by Black Lives Matter Grassroots, was light on details of the alleged theft of funds, but delved into the fissures within the network of Black Lives Matter groups, charting changes in leadership and power that left Bowers with tight control of the organization. Bowers and his group denied all claims of financial misconduct and chastised those suing him for “falling victim to the carceral logic and social violence that fuels the legal system” in taking legal action against him. “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,” the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation’s board of directors said in a joint statement. Bowers is one of three members of the board. Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation is an administrative organization that raises funds to distribute to Black Lives Matter Grassroots, the umbrella organization for local chapters of the group. Bowers was hired by Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors in 2020 to help raise and distribute money to groups within the foundation. Attorney Walter Mosley, representing the plaintiffs in the case, alleges that Bowers instead engaged in self-dealing, giving grants to his own consultant firm and charging exorbitant fees reaching eight figures. “The lawsuit demands that they return the people’s funds and stop impersonating Black Lives Matter,” Mosley said in a statement. The lawsuit was announced at a news conference Thursday hosted by Black Lives Matter-Los Angeles co-founder Melina Abdullah, who said that Bowers shut her and other leaders out of the BLM social media accounts in March by changing the passwords. As Abdullah leveled accusations at Bowers, he shot back in a statement, claiming that she was the one who committed “financial malfeasance.” He also accused Abdullah of “unprincipled decision making, and a leadership style rooted in retribution and intimidation.” Black Lives Matter has come under fiscal scrutiny since 2020, when the group received $90 million in donations amid protests following the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police. The organization filed its first public IRS 990 tax form in 2022 and was criticized by some for buying a $6-million Studio City compound.
BLM founder Patrisse Cullors spends thousands renovating backyard of posh $1.4M LA home https://nypost.com/2022/10/08/blm-f...housands-renovating-backyard-of-1-4m-la-home/ The controversial Marxist co-founder of Black Lives Matter recently completed tens of thousands of dollars in renovations at her posh Los Angeles home, including building a new plunge pool and backyard sauna, according to a new report. Patrisse Cullors, 39, the former leader of Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, also added a children’s play area for her young son outside her 2,580-square foot three-bedroom, three-bathroom home in Los Angeles’ Topanga Canyon neighborhood, photos show. The images reveal a deep plunge pool that has yet to have water added, as well as a small shed that houses the sauna. A child’s swing set and covered slide is also visible in the photograph. Cullors, who resigned from the national group a month after The Post revealed that she had gone on a real estate buying spree last year, paid $1.4 million for the Topanga Canyon home in March 2021, according to public records. At the time of her May 2021 resignation, Cullors insisted her “retirement” from the group that she had led for six years had been in the works, and was not tied to the controversy surrounding the shopping spree in which she amassed four properties for more than $3.2 million amid the group’s troubled finances. Among the properties was a sprawling home attached to an airplane hangar and runway in an Atlanta suburb that she has since sold, according to public records. Cullors also used donations to pay a company owned by her baby daddy, Damon Turner, $969,459 for “live production, design and media,” according to the group’s latest filings with the IRS. Cullors chalked up the reports on her properties and spending as “right-wing bullying” and said that she had paid for her holdings with money she made from book and speaking deals. Last year, BLMGNF said it took in more than $90 million following the May 2020 murder of George Floyd, a black man whose death under the knee of a white Minneapolis police officer led to protests around the world. Cullors, who bought the Topanga Canyon property under her company Abolitionist Entertainment LLC, paid for the house in cash, according to a celebrity real estate blog. The backyard renovations are in addition to a $35,000 fence that Cullors installed around the property last year. After Cullors resigned from BLMGNF, the group continued to be mired by financial controversies. Last month, the non-profit’s new leader was accused of siphoning more than $10 million in fees from donors to pay his consulting firm, according to a lawsuit. But the BLM leader, Shalomyah Bowers, told The Post last month the case against him is nothing more than a power grab by disgruntled activists trying to wrest control of the movement. Bowers, who became head of the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation in April, is accused of paying the cash to his own Bowers Consulting Firm, and diverting resources from a new group called Black Lives Matter Grassroots, Inc. BLM Global Network Foundation paid the Bowers Consulting Firm $2,167,894 in 2021, according to federal tax filings. Cullors didn’t return requests for comment Saturday. Bowers refused comment, adding that the renovations were not related to BLMGNF. (Article has pictures)
More BLM leaders scamming millions of dollars out of the organization. It's unbelievable that corporate America fell for this BLM scam and promptly allowed the BLM leadership to steal nearly every dime of the money provided to promote "social justice". Defund-police activist ordered to pay legal bills for BLM after claiming group owed her $10M https://nypost.com/2024/01/25/news/former-blm-activist-ordered-to-pay-groups-legal-fees-after-suit/ A prominent Black Lives Matter activist who tried to collect $10 million in a “frivolous” lawsuit against the national group last year may now be on the hook for more than $700,000 in legal fees and costs, The Post has learned. Los Angeles-based activist Melina Abdullah has already been ordered to pay $100,698 in legal fees to Bowers Consulting, a firm run by Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation leader Shalomyah Bowers, according to a decision this month by a Los Angeles Superior Court judge, “Melina Abdullah sought a lawsuit of lies to try and gain power, and it didn’t work,” Bowers said in an exclusive statement to The Post Wednesday. “I am happy a judge resoundingly dismissed Melina’s lawsuit a few months ago, but it was also really important that there be some accountability for her actions because free speech does not allow you to propagate lies … We’re thankful the judge is holding her accountable.” On Jan. 30, a judge will decide whether Abdullah and her breakaway Black Lives Matter Grassroots will be forced to pay more than $600,000 in additional legal fees and costs to BLMGNF and Bowers himself. “BLMGNF agrees with the Court’s decision to dismiss the entire lawsuit,” said Byron McLain, the attorney for BLMGNF, in a statement to The Post Wednesday. “BLM Grassroots is required by statute to pay for BLMGNF’s attorneys’ fees and costs as a result, and we look forward to hearing the Judge’s decision on the exact amount BLM Grassroots and Melina Abdullah must reimburse to BLMGNF.” Abdullah, a professor of Pan African Studies at California State University in Los Angeles, had accused Bowers of “siphoning” more than $10 million in fees from donors to pay his consulting firm, according to her 2022 lawsuit, which was dismissed last year. Abdullah incorporated BLM Grassroots in May 2022 after she was ousted from the national group, according to public records. Abdullah had claimed that her group, which she said was comprised of two dozen BLM chapters across the country, was entitled to the cash, but Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Stephanie Bowick ruled in July that they failed to prove their case. At the time, Bowers told The Post that the lawsuit was little more than a power grab after Abdullah had been denied a position on the governing board of the non-profit. Bowers took over BLMGNF following board unrest after the resignation of BLMGNF co-founder Patrisse Cullors, who left the organization after The Post revealed that she went on a $3 million real-estate buying spree. Abdullah, who posted a 29-minute video on her site denouncing Bowers and other members of the BLMGNF board, refused comment when contacted by The Post Wednesday. Cullors claimed she did not use any donations to purchase three properties in Los Angeles and Atlanta. The group, which raked in more than $90 million in donations after the death of George Floyd in 2020, did spend donations to buy a $6 million, 6,500-square-foot mansion in Studio City that Cullors said was to be used as an office and event space for the non-profit. The group also spent $6.3 million in donor funds on a mansion in Toronto for the BLM Canadian chapter. Abdullah was a co-founder of BLM along with Cullors and Alizia Garza. The three women were leading the non-profit when a shell company for the group purchased the Los Angeles property in Oct. 2020. Abdullah, a defund-the-police supporter, has also sued the Los Angeles Police Department — for allegedly harassing her when they sent a SWAT team to her home in 2020 — as well as a former district attorney. (Article has pictures and more information.)
This is a reminder that the BLM leaders in the U.K. are also frauds... just like the ones in the U.S. It is a shame that corporations gave tens of millions to these scammers and courts do not hold these BLM leaders properly accountable for their crimes. BLM activist jailed over fundraiser fraud ordered to repay just £1 https://www.yahoo.com/news/blm-activist-jailed-over-fundraiser-125122639.html