Black Lives Matter Director Spent Millions in Donations on Homes, Shopping, Vacations, Indictment Alleges

Oklahoma City Black Lives Matter Executive Director Tashella Sheri Amore Dickerson has been charged with 20 counts of wire fraud and five counts of money laundering after allegedly spending millions in donations on personal indulgences.

Dickerson took over as the director of Black Lives Matter OKC (BLMOCK) in 2016 and since 2020 has raised more than $5.6 million for what donors believed was a national bail fund. The bail fund was also supplemented by grants through the Community Justice Exchange, Massachusetts Bail Fund, and Minnesota Freedom Fund.

The indictment alleges that from June 2020 to October 2025, Dickerson used at least $3.15 million in bail fund donations and grant money to supplement her lifestyle. Dickerson allegedly embezzled the funds to pay for personal shopping sprees, $50,000 in food and grocery delivery, trips to Jamaica and the Dominican Republic, as well as a personal vehicle and six Oklahoma City properties registered in her name.

The indictment explains that Dickerson allegedly used interstate wire communications to send false reports to Alliance for Global Justice, a fiscal sponsor to BLMOCK, which only permitted the group to use its funds in ways compliant with its 501(c)3 nonprofit status. Dickerson, however, did not disclose how she was allegedly using the funds for personal gain.

If convicted, Dickerson faces up to 20 years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine per count of wire fraud. For each count of money laundering, she faces ten years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000, or twice the amount of criminally derived property.

Donations began pouring into Black Lives Matter and affiliated racial justice organizations in 2020 following the murder of George Floyd, setting off a spending spree among leaders who suddenly had access to millions of dollars with very little oversight.

According to the group’s 2020-2022 tax filings, only one third of the organization’s $90 million in revenue was used to fund the charity.

Patrisse Cullors who ran the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, the movement’s umbrella organization, spent millions on job contracts for friends and family members as well as several multi-million dollar homes. Cullors resigned in 2021 in response to backlash from BLM chapters across the country though she was never charged criminally and has denied any wrongdoing.

BLM activist Monica Cannon-Grant pled guilty in September to multiple counts of wire fraud after diverting $185,000 in donations to her nonprofit, Violence in Boston, to pay for rent, shopping sprees, hotels, car rentals, auto repairs, meal deliveries, and a summer vacation trip to Maryland.

The Justice Department launched an investigation into BLM and similar activist groups in October.