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Black Lives Matter (BLM) leaders have filed a lawsuit against a Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation (GNF) executive who they claim stole $10 million in donations for his own “personal piggy bank,” per The Hill.
Melina Abdullah, a founder of the BLM Los Angeles chapter and a co-director of the BLM Grassroots, announced last week that the organization was suing the foundation, its board member Shalomyah Bowers, and his consulting firm.
The initial complaint against GNF accuses Bowers of becoming a "turned usurper” who charged fees for BLM donors that were ultimately used for his personal funds.
The complaint is also seeking a court order to stop the foundation's use of the BLM identity.
“Global Network Foundation has been taken away from the people who built it,” Abdullah said at a press conference announcing the suit. “Global Network Foundation is now led by a highly paid consultant who paid himself upwards of $2 million in a single year.”
Abdullah said BLM founder Patrisse Cullors had created a transition plan to hand over control of the foundation to the grassroots org, but GNF has allegedly blocked her from using social media accounts and is putting out messages she doesn't agree with.
In response to the press conference, the GNF board members denied the allegations and said they were “disappointed and dismayed at the false narrative” spread by Abdullah and other BLM leaders.
“We as Black people and Black-led organizations cannot continue spending all of our precious time and energy fighting and tearing each other down,” a GNF statement reads. “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 foundation's board of directors claimed that they have sought out meetings with Abdullah and other BLM leaders, shared social media accounts with the grassroots organization, and that there was never a plan in place to transition GNF to BLM Grassroots.
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