Shalomyah Bowers, a top official at the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, was accused of stealing about $10 million from donations to the cause on Thursday.
The BLM Global Network Foundation’s executive director, Shalomyah Bowers, was appointed in April, according to the New York Post. Members of the group claim that he stole money from Black Lives Matter Grassroots, a recent addition to the movement that only started three months ago.
Shalomyah Bowers is accused by activists of stealing money and rerouting it to his business, Bowers Consulting Firm, at will. Bowers has always refuted the allegations.
Shalomyah Bowers joined the BLM Global Network Foundation three years ago, according to CNN. Since 2020, when the activist group got $90 million in donations during the George Floyd protests, the BLM Grassroots has accused Bowers of stealing money from the business.
An attorney named Walter Mosley formed the new organization in May in California. The lawsuit was allegedly written by Mosley and was filed against Bowers, his consultancy business, the BLM Global Network Foundation, and an unspecified number of people.
The allegations against Shalomya Bowers were enumerated in the lawsuit, which was submitted to the Los Angeles Superior Court.
It read:
“Mr. Bowers decided he could not let go of his personal piggy bank. 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.”
Fox reported that the suit accused Bowers of profiteering from the hard work of ground-level protestors, who engaged in several protests, some of which turned deadly. It read:
“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.”
Shalomyah Bowers Denies the Accusation
Bowers, on the other hand, has denied the charges made against him. He claimed that the accusations were being leveled at him because someone wanted to take his leadership position.
He told the Post:
“It’s a power move by someone hellbent on achieving power and control.”
He told reporters that recent audits show no evidence that he misappropriated funds. He said:
“It’s the most insane thing I’ve read in a court pleading, and it’s signed under penalty of perjury when they know it’s a lie.”
Fox reported that Shalomyah Bowers was supposedly a close associate of BLM founder Patrisse Cullors, who was accused of misappropriating the organization’s funds in 2021 and using them to invest roughly $14 million in real estate across Los Angeles and Toronto.