Credit to Jeryl Bier who noticed this today. According to this Courthouse News Service story, a lawsuit has been filed which alleges that Shalomyah Bowers has been using the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation as a slush fund.

The lawsuit says that Shalomyah Bowers, the board secretary of Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, the non-profit organization that acts as the movement’s administrative arm, used Black Lives Matter, or BLM, as his “personal piggy bank,” and of “betray[ing] the public trust by self-dealing and breaching his fiduciary duties.”

Bowers has taken control of Black Lives Matter’s financial accounts and social media accounts, shutting out its founders and most prominent organizers, like Melina Abdullah. Abdullah, who founded BLM’s Los Angeles Chapter and also heads its grassroots wing, estimates that the Global Network Foundation’s financial accounts hold “over $100 million.”

The Global Network Foundation’s board of directors, Abdullah said, “are engaging in self dealing, enriching themselves off of the backs of people who put their blood, sweat and tears into this movement.”

The lawsuit was apparently announced yesterday at a press conference but this photo is the only media I can find. There doesn’t appear to be a YouTube video of the press conference available.

BLMGrassroots announced #Lawsuit files against @BLM 

Full story in @LAProgressive by @jamesfarrlive on fridayhttps://t.co/aAmg9tNMBo@blmLA @docmellymel#BlackTwitter pic.twitter.com/4yjjafQU1x

— James Farr LIVE (@jamesfarrlive) September 1, 2022

The person behind the lawsuit appears to be Melina Abdullah, the founder of BLM Los Angeles and the person who runs a group called BLM Grassroots. She has been a critic of BLM Global Network Foundation which is the administrative entity created by Patrisse Cullors to accept donations. Yesterday Abdullah retweeted that tweet above and also said this about the press conference.

Today was a challenge for me. I am all for confronting white-supremacy, much harder to tell the truth about liars and thieves in our own midst. And still we must.

— Melina Abdullah (@DocMellyMel) September 2, 2022

BLM GNF took in about $90 million dollars after the death of George Floyd. What exactly happened to all of that money isn’t clear but we do know that BLM GNF gave millions of it to BLM Canada which bought a large building in Toronto for $8.1 million.

We also know that about $6 million went toward the purchase of a large home in Los Angeles. BLM claimed that home was bought to be used as a creative space for black artists but in the first 18 months the group owned it, the only people who used it were Patrisse Cullors (who filmed a some personal YouTube videos there) and a few other people in the organization’s leadership.

The revelation about the $6 million house came a few months after the Washington Examiner looked into BLM GNF and found it had no office and no known director. Charity Watch Executive Director Laurie Styron described BLM Global Network Foundation as “a giant ghost ship full of treasure drifting in the night with no captain, no discernible crew, and no clear direction.”

According to the lawsuit, Shalomyah Bowers took over the organization immediately after Patrisse Cullors left.

Bowers, a consultant, was hired to run the new foundation. According to the lawsuit, Cullors explained to everyone “that Bowers would just serve in the administrative capacity and assist Ms. Cullors,” and that he “did not have the ambition to ‘take over and run’ BLM.” After the transition was complete, Cullors resigned.

“Within months,” the lawsuit claims, “Bowers had run [two] well-respected advocates out of the organization. Through a series of misrepresentations and unauthorized backroom dealings, Mr. Bowers managed to steal control over GNF as the sole Board member and officer.”

“There was really no system of checks and balances that could hold him to account,” said Abdullah, who said Bowers is “motivated by money and not the movement.”

Yesterday, BLM published a response to the allegations on their website. In their view, Melina Abdullah is putting dirty laundry out in public in an effort to seize control of the organization:

Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation (BLMGNF) is here to give light and fight for Black liberation. Make no mistake, the allegations of Melina Abdullah and BLM Grassroots (BLMGR) are false. They are slanderous and devoid of reality…

We, the Board, have zero interest in taking significant time away from our work towards building a solid, trusted Foundation. We are focused on the future and have been deeply engaged with and committed to Black liberation work. BLMGNF is a non-profit philanthropic organization committed to managing its current assets transparently and with accountability under its new leadership team. We have no desire and little time to put private business out in the street. However, Melina Abdullah, BLMGR, and its leadership seem intent on fighting publicly about their desire to control the entirety of Black Lives Matter.

The statement goes on to accuse Abdullah of acting white by using the court system “which is propped up by white supremacy” to try to resolve her issues with the group.

The BLMGNF Board requested – on over ten occasions – private mediation or meetings with Melina Abdullah and BLM Grassroots, including and regarding social media policies. We did so in order to stay true to principles of abolition — resolving issues through conflict mediation rather than falling victim to the carceral logic and social violence that fuels the legal system. But Melina Abdullah and BLMGR ignored or refused our offers. To the contrary, 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. In particular, Melina Abdullah and BLMGR’s storytelling concerning the current BLMGNF Board is harmful, divisive, and false. It only gives fodder to right-wing media’s clear agenda of sowing distrust and division among Black folks, and it is in deep contrast to abolitionist values and the fight for Black liberation…

Since Patrisse’s departure, Melina Abdullah and BLM Grassroots have sent threatening letters and attacked the livelihood of BLMGNF’s Board members directly. Not only have they demanded the resignation of current BLMGNF leadership in efforts to seize the financial resources of BLMGNF via intimidation tactics, but they have quite literally forced the firing of a BLMGNF Board member from her job, threatening her livelihood, and removed her from her activist community. Melina Abdullah has attempted to bully the BLMGNF Board into submission to her will. This press conference is its latest attempt to assert a false version of events and create enemies out of fellow movement leaders and impacted family members.

The statement says BLM GNF had considered handing more money over to Abdullah and her BLM Grassroots organization but in January 2022 they got a letter warning them about Abdullah’s behavior. The statement also alleges financial mismanagement by Abdullah:

The soundness in the decision not to transfer further assets of BLMGNF — beyond the $7 million Melina Abdullah and BLMGR already received this year — was reinforced when BLMGNF learned that BLMGR leaders were giving themselves $10,000 monthly stipends while claiming they were “volunteer leaders,” instead of allotting those resources to either further developing their own Grassroots infrastructure or redirecting those funds to local organizers and families they purport to support.

Of course, they can say almost anything in a letter. Now that this appears to be headed to court we may eventually find out who is telling the truth. Until this is sorted out, it appears BLM is facing the same kind of internal fractures and infighting that Ryan Grim reported were plaguing almost every major institution on the left these days.