A federal grand jury has indicted the leader of a Black Lives Matter organization in Oklahoma City, accusing her of diverting millions of dollars intended for charitable and protest-related purposes into personal spending — including international travel, groceries and real estate — prosecutors said Thursday.
Tashella Sheri Amore Dickerson, 52, was indicted earlier this month on 20 counts of wire fraud and five counts of money laundering, according to court records.
Court filings did not list an attorney for Dickerson, and messages left Thursday via phone and email were not immediately returned.
Prosecutors allege Dickerson has served since at least 2016 as executive director of Black Lives Matter OKC, which accepted charitable donations through an affiliation with the Arizona-based Alliance for Global Justice.
The indictment says BLM OKC raised more than $5.6 million beginning in 2020, drawing heavily from online donors and national bail funds. Those contributions, prosecutors say, were meant to help post bail for individuals arrested during racial justice demonstrations that followed the 2020 killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer.
Instead, the indictment alleges that when bail funds were returned to BLM OKC, Dickerson embezzled at least $3.15 million by transferring it into personal accounts. Prosecutors say the money was then used for trips to Jamaica and the Dominican Republic, retail purchases, a personal vehicle, and six Oklahoma City properties deeded either to Dickerson or to a company she controlled. The indictment also claims she spent at least $50,000 on food and grocery deliveries for herself and her children.
Prosecutors further allege Dickerson submitted false annual reports to the Alliance for Global Justice, representing that the organization’s funds were used solely for tax-exempt purposes.
If convicted, Dickerson could face up to 20 years in federal prison and fines of up to $250,000 on each wire fraud count, along with up to 10 years in prison and additional fines for each money laundering count.
In a live video posted Thursday afternoon on her Facebook page, Dickerson said she was not in custody and told viewers she was “fine.”
“I cannot make an official comment about what transpired today,” she said. “I am home. I am safe. I have confidence in our team.”
She also suggested the allegations were linked to her work, saying, “A lot of times when people come at you with these types of things … it’s evidence that you are doing the work. That is what I’m standing on.”
The Black Lives Matter movement began in 2013 after the acquittal of George Zimmerman, who fatally shot 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Florida. It gained broader national attention the following year after Michael Brown was killed by police in Ferguson, Missouri, turning “Black lives matter” into both a rallying cry for supporters and a frequent target for critics.
The Associated Press reported in October that the Justice Department was investigating whether leaders in the broader Black Lives Matter movement had defrauded donors who gave tens of millions of dollars during the 2020 protests. Prosecutors said there was no immediate indication that Dickerson’s case is connected to that separate probe.
