The executive director of Black Lives Matter Oklahoma City has been indicted by a grand jury for allegedly embezzling over $3 million in funds that were designated to be used for social justice causes. Tashella Sheri Amore Dickerson, 52, was released from custody on December 11 after her first court appearance this week.
Dickerson is being charged with wire fraud and money laundering after federal prosecutors for the case say she diverted a total of $3.15 million in returned bail checks to her personal bank accounts over a period of five years. The defendant controlled the accounts between June 2020 and October 2025.
The indictment, unsealed on Thursday, says that Dickerson used the money “for her personal benefit,” which included taking some lavish trips to Jamaica and the Dominican Republic where she spent “tens of thousands of dollars in retail shopping.” And her spending spree didn’t end there.
Dickerson allegedly blew more than $50,000 in food deliveries, a new vehicle, and the purchasing of six real estate properties. A press release from the Justice Department concerning the indictment says that BLM OKC pulled in a total of over $5.6 million, starting in 2020, which included grants from the Community Justice Exchange, the Massachusetts Bail Fund, and the Minnesota Freedom Fund.
According to AOL.Com, the organizations listed above sent the majority of the money through the Alliance for Global Justice (AFGJ) which served as the fiscal sponsor for BLM OKC. It required all the money to be used for tax-exempt purposes allowed under Section 501(c)(3). AFGJL prohibited the money from being used to buy real estate without prior approval and also required BLM OKC to provide full account for all expenditures upon request.
However, instead of using the money for its intended purposes, prosecutors say Dickerson deposited $3.15 million in returned bail checks into her personal accounts. She then used interstate wire transfers to submit two annual reports to AFGJ that didn’t contain the personal use of the money. The reports the 52-year-old submitted said the money was only used for tax-exempt purposes.
Dickerson served as the executive director of the BLM group starting in 2016 and had access to its bank, PayPal, and CashApp accounts. Prosecutors say the embezzlement started when national bail funds allowed BLM OKC to keep portions of the returned bail money to establish a revolving bail fund or to support activities related to its overall mission.
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BLM OKC isn’t the only such organization to come under scrutiny for misappropriating funds. In 2022, Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, a national group that has no affiliation with BLM OKC, started taking serious heat after a report from New York Magazine revealed that it had bought a $6 million property in California with donor funds.
A number of internal memos showed that leaders in the organization chatted about how to respond to questions brought up about the house. The group claimed the property was going to be a creative and community space. The Black Lives Matter Global Network was contacted regarding Dickerson’s charges. A spokesperson said that they practice a “model of decentralized leadership.”
“The Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation operates independently from local chapters, and the local chapters operate independently of the Foundation. The Foundation remains committed to transparency and integrity, and disrupting what philanthropy looks like in service of Black people,” the spokesperson explained.
Dickerson was charged with 20 counts of wire fraud and five counts of money laundering. If convicted, she could spend up to 20 years in a federal prison for each count of wire fraud and 10 years for each money-laundering count.
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