More evidence that Black Lives Matter is a scam on the guilt-ridden whites and woke corporations that fund it surfaced in a recently filed lawsuit accusing the outfit’s leader of pocketing $10 million for his personal use.
Filed in California, the complaint accuses Shalomyah Bowers, who runs the BLM Global Network Foundation (BLMGNF), of paying his own consulting firm with BLM funds. Bowers, the complaint says, used BLMGNF as a “personal piggy bank” and invited the scrutiny of the Internal Revenue Service.
The accusations from BLM Grassroots — fraud, conversion, unfair business practices, intentional misrepresentation, and unjust enrichment — represent the second major scandal for BLM, whose founder, Marxist Patrisse Cullors, funneled BLM booty to her baby’s daddy and purchased houses across the country.
“Irreparable Harm”
The suit opens by accusing Bowers of siphoning “more than $10,000,000 in ‘fees’ from BLM donors.” But Bowers wasn’t satisfied with just that, the lawsuit says:
Mr. Bowers decided he could not let go of his personal piggy bank, when more than 300 movement leaders, as well as BLM Founders, insisted that he resign from GNF. Instead, he continued to betray the public trust by self-dealing and breaching his fiduciary duties. His actions have [led] GNF into multiple investigations by the Internal Revenue Service and various state attorney generals [sic], blazing a path of irreparable harm to BLM in less than eighteen months.
As well, Bowers was less a BLM activist than a detached manager for the outfit well-known for its rioting and wanton destruction supported by woke corporate America.
“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 says. “Instead of using the donations for its intended purposes, Mr. Bowers diverted these donations to his own coffers.”
Calling Bowers an “interloper,” the lawsuit accuses him of changing passwords on social media and email accounts, and hiring lawyers and media consultants “to bully and harass the organizers and founders of BLM.”
And he is still “fraudulently” raising money from “unsuspecting donors passing himself off as the organization that is doing the work of BLM, padding his own pockets [and those] of his associates at the cost of BLM’s reputation.”
The Charges
Noting that Bowers made about $2.2 million from BLMGNF in less than eight months, the lawsuit alleges that “he wanted to keep the ‘piggy bank’ that GNF had become to him and his company,” and so he drove valuable personnel out of the organization and took control of its board:
While BLM Grassroots was in the field serving the interest of the people the organization represents, Bowers was exercising his stolen primary decision-making power by hiring other Board members from his company, Bowers Consulting Firm, and issuing GNF grants to his consulting firm as well as less-aligned organizations who agree to hire the firm. As a result, there was an increased lack of transparency, self-dealing, and conflict of interest issues regarding the issuance of grants, unapproved compensation, and appointment of Board members within GNF under his stolen control.
Another charge in the lawsuit is that Bowers and BLMGNF did not respond adequately to the “white supremacist” shooting in Buffalo, New York, that left 10 blacks dead. While BLM Grassroots in Buffalo reacted, BLMGNF did little to nothing.
“After requests for GNF to address the tragedy, GNF simply posted many hours later a woefully insufficient ‘3-word response’ with typos in the caption many hours after the reports occurred,” the lawsuit alleges:
GNF failed to respond to BLM Grassroots’ emails to address and respond to the ongoing tragedy or seek guidance from those steeped in the political grounding and on-the-groundwork [sic]. GNF’s failed response suggests that they are either “asleep at the wheel” or grossly unprepared to lead the organization through these impactful moments as our community demands.
The suit does not explain the accounting behind its accusation that Bowers stole $10 million.
Homes Galore
The lawsuit also accuses Bowers of using “donor funds to purchase [a] home on behalf of GNF and intended to use the property for purposes unrelated to the BLM mission and values.”
Buying homes seems to be a particular obsession of BLM leaders, as Patrisse Cullors, who hired Bowers, has purchased four homes worth $3.2 million, one of which features a runway and hangar for an airplane.
Cullors founded BLM after the Trayvon Martin Hoax that ended in the racially motivated prosecution of George Zimmerman, who shot Martin in self-defense when Martin tried to murder him.
