Donations to the national organization for the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement have seen a sharp decline amid several self-enrichment scandals and infighting.
Records viewed by The Epoch Times show that the fundraising arm of the organization, Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, raised just $9.3 million in fiscal 2022 compared with the $80 million or so the group raised in 2020, the year that George Floyd protests and riots rocked cities across the United States.
Representatives for BLM Global Network Foundation didn’t respond by press time to a request by The Epoch Times for comment.
‘Personal Piggy Bank’
In September 2022, Shalomyah Bowers, head of BLM Global Network Foundation, was accused of stealing more than $10 million in donations as “fees” for “on-the-ground work.”“While BLM leaders and movement workers were on the streets 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 reads.
Bowers’s actions prompted the IRS and a number of state attorneys general to lead multiple investigations into the financial accounts of BLM Global Network Foundation, according to the complaint, which states that the BLM movement suffered “irreparable harm” as a result of Bowers’s actions.
“As of the date of this lawsuit, Mr. Bowers continues to fraudulently raise money from unsuspecting donors passing himself off as the organization that is doing the work of BLM, padding his own pockets and that of his associates at the cost of BLM’s reputation,” the complaint reads.
“As shown in the independent audit, there has been no ’siphoning of money' by Shalomyah Bowers and Bowers Consulting Firm,” Byron McLain, counsel for BLM Global Network Foundation, said while portraying the organization under Bowers’s leadership as having “charted a path of responsibility.”
At about that time, the head of BLM Greater New York City, Hawk Newsome, called for an independent investigation to determine how BLM Global Network Foundation spends its money.
The organization also sent almost $970,000 to Trap Heals, a cultural architecture firm founded by Damon Turner, who fathered Cullors’s child.
Most charitable organizations must file the form with the IRS annually to maintain their tax-exempt status. The foundation hadn’t been required to do so while under the fiscal sponsorship of a charity until December 2020, when it became an independent, 501(c)(3) nonprofit.
Transparency Concerns
At the end of 2020, 10 local BLM chapters accused the global foundation of lacking accountability and failing to provide financial transparency.Local chapters also complained of being walled off from meaningful participation in the national arm’s decision-making processes, including about the establishment of its political analysis and vision, and that they “have been consistently prevented from establishing financial transparency.”
“For years there has been inquiry regarding the financial operations of BLMGN and no acceptable process of either public or internal transparency about the unknown millions of dollars donated to BLMGN, which has certainly increased during this time of pandemic and rebellion,” they wrote.
The group stated that a key takeaway from its Form 990 tax filing and independent audit was that the organization is “financially sound” while its leaders “have been good stewards” of donations.
It also claimed that scrutiny about its finances from “right-wing” media outlets was an attempt to “sow mistrust” in the group and that allegations of financial malfeasance are “racist.”