British Black Lives Matter activist Xahra Saleem was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison for fraud on Tuesday, after admitting that she spent more than £30,000 in BLM charitable donations to fund her lifestyle.
The Bristol activist helped organize a June 2020 march that led to the toppling of a statue of Edward Colston, a Bristol native, 17th-century merchant, member of Parliament, and slave trader. BLM protesters confessed to topping the statue but pleaded not guilty to criminal damage in 2022.
Saleem, a director of the youth charity Changing Your Mindset, set up a GoFundMe page on behalf of the charity to fundraise for the 2020 march. More than 500 donations flooded the GoFundMe page — donations Saleem then transferred to her personal accounts to spend on rent, a new iPhone, hair appointments, clothing, and Uber.
Raising money for charity was “a worthwhile cause,” Judge Michael Longman said on Tuesday, but Saleem “then used (it) not for [a charitable] benefit but for [her] own, funding a lifestyle for [herself] that [she] could not otherwise have afforded.”
“Your dishonest behavior continued for a substantial amount of time. There were a large number of victims. You must have realized how much your behavior would affect so many people,” Longman told Saleem.
The charity has since shut down. Twenty-two-year-old Deneisha Royal, who would have received support from the Changing Your Mindset, was outside of the courthouse on Tuesday.
“It saddens me that a member of our community could do this to us. For me the group was a safe place. A refuge that I could relax without concern for my safety,” Royal said. “For some members it was an opportunity to cook a meal, collect donations and receive support for mental health as well as learn about new things such as employment opportunities.”
Saleem isn’t the only BLM activist with a penchant for fraud.
Boston-based BLM activist Monica Cannon-Grant, who led an anti-violence nonprofit, and her husband were accused of using charitable donations to pay for their personal expenses. Cannon-Grant was indicted on 18 fraud-related counts.
Ohioan activist Tyree Conyers-Page was hit with three counts of money laundering and one count of wire fraud after defrauding BLM donors out of $450,000. Conyers-Page claimed to have used the donations to combat racial-injustice, but the FBI discovered that a card linked to the charity’s bank account was used on dining, entertainment, clothing, furniture, and a home-security system. Each fraudster’s registered charity received an influx of donations following the Summer of Rage protests in 2020, which were incited by George Floyd’s death.
According to 2020-2022 federal tax filings, BLM used only one-third of its $90 million in revenue to fund charitable organizations. BLM spent $22 million on expenses, which included a whopping $2.1 million payment to BLM board member Shalomyah Bowers for her consulting services.