'Defund The Police' Activist Charged With Misusing Over $75,000 Donations On Vacations & Shopping Sprees
Extending a prolonged trend of alleged misuse of funds by social justice warriors running leftist charities, an anti-police-brutality activist has been accused of spending $75,000 in charitable donations on himself, blowing the money on vacations, designer clothing and more.
On Tuesday, Washington DC attorney general Brian L. Schwalb filed suit against Brandon Anderson and his nonprofit organization "Raheem AI," which was launched in 2017 to provide “black, brown, and indigenous community crisis responders with the tools, training, connections, and funding they need to provide care.”
“Brandon Anderson misused charitable donations to fund lavish vacations and shopping sprees, and the Raheem AI board of directors let him get away with it," said Schwalb in a statement. “Not only did their financial abuses violate fundamental principles of nonprofit governance, but Anderson and Raheem AI failed to pay their employee the wages they had earned.”
Schwalb's statement provided spelled out the nature of Anderson's alleged self-indulgent spending:
Since 2021, Anderson repeatedly used Raheem AI’s funds for personal use: spending over $40,000 on a luxury vacation rental service that allows members to stay in high-end mansions and penthouse apartments, $10,000 on hotels and Airbnb’s for personal travel - including to a Cancun resort, $10,000 on designer clothing brands, and $5,000 on emergency veterinary services. None of these expenses furthered Raheem AI’s stated nonprofit purpose.
Anderson's alleged failure to pay an employee apparently lit the fuse that led to Tuesday's move by the DC attorney general. The employee, Jasmine Banks, told the New York Times she contacted Schwalb's office after her salary screeched to a halt. She says she was put on leave after she found credit card records of Anderson's wild spending and raised her concerns. One of the firm's board members told the Times that mansion rentals were associated with business travel.
Raheem AI initially worked to create an app to facilitate police misconduct complaints. The vision evolved to creating a police alternative, one that would let people dealing with nonviolent situations contact a network of aid workers. The group racked up more than $4.3 million in donations from leftist organizations, with much of that money pouring in after police killed George Floyd in Minneapolis in 2020.
Before his fall, Anderson's press coverage frequently included his claim that his work was inspired by the death of his gay "life partner" Raheem, whom he said was shot to death by police during a traffic stop in Oklahoma City. Now, it appears Anderson may not only guilty of financial misconduct, but also of concocting that whole story. Per the Times:
As the group foundered, former employees discovered something else that was troubling: They could not find proof that Raheem ever existed. Mr. Anderson did not previously respond to questions about the man whose purported life and death inspired the nonprofit.
Schwalb said there were no checks and balances at Raheem AI, as the entity hasn't had a treasurer since 2020, leaving Anderson with full control over the assets. His suit seeks a court order to dissolve the nonprofit, recover misused money, and bar Anderson from serving in the leadership of any other DC nonprofits.
“My office will not allow people to masquerade behind noble causes while violating the law, cheating taxpayers, or stealing from their workers,” said Schwalb.
Jasmine Banks, a former staffer, says she is owed tens of thousands in unpaid wages since April, when she flagged Anderson’s actions to the board. She also alleges she was forced to sign an illegal noncompete clause.
“It hurts my heart to say it, but I think it was a con from the beginning,” she said of the organization.
To rattle off just two previous episodes, we've seen an Atlanta Black Lives Matter founder arrested for using $200,000 in BLM donations on food, dining, entertainment, clothing, furniture, a home security system, tailored suits and accessories, and the Stacey Abrams-founded voting group the New Georgia Project accused of financial mismanagement and misuse of donated funds.
We're guessing there's more where all these came from.