Oklahoma Black Lives Matter Leader Indicted Over Alleged $3.15 Million Embezzlement

FBI Director Kash Patel said Tashella Sheri Amore Dickerson allegedly used her position ‘to steal donor money and enrich herself.’

A Black Lives Matter mural in the Humboldt Park neighborhood on the West Side of Chicago on April 11, 2022. Cara Ding/The Epoch Times

The executive director of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement in Oklahoma City has been indicted for allegedly funneling $3.15 million in returned bail checks into her personal bank accounts, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said on Dec. 11.

Prosecutors charged Tashella Sheri Amore Dickerson, 52, with 20 counts of wire fraud and five counts of money laundering on Dec. 3, the DOJ said in a statement.

Dickerson was accused of embezzling funds meant to cover pretrial bail for people arrested in racial justice protests after the death of George Floyd, who was killed in 2020 by a Minneapolis officer.

FBI Director Kash Patel announced the indictment in a post on X, saying that Dickerson had allegedly used her position “to steal donor money and enrich herself.”

The DOJ stated that Dickerson has served as the executive director of BLM Oklahoma City since 2016, which gave her access to the group’s financial accounts.

The group raised more than $5.6 million in 2020, including national bail fund grants, routed through its fiscal sponsor, the Arizona-based Alliance for Global Justice (AFGJ).

Between June 2020 and October 2025, Dickerson deposited $3.15 million in returned bail checks into her own accounts, rather than BLM Oklahoma City accounts, and “used interstate wire communications” to submit two false annual reports to AFGJ claiming the funds were spent on tax-exempt purposes, according to the DOJ.

Prosecutors alleged that Dickerson used the money to pay for recreational travel to Jamaica and the Dominican Republic, “tens of thousands of dollars” in retail shopping, and $50,000 in food and grocery deliveries for herself and her children.

Dickerson also allegedly used the fund to pay for her personal vehicle and six real properties in Oklahoma City, deeded to her and a company she controlled, according to the DOJ.

The DOJ stated that Dickerson faces up to 20 years in federal prison for each count of wire fraud and 10 years for each count of money laundering, along with fines of up to $250,000 per count.

It is unclear whether Dickerson has been assigned a legal representative. The Epoch Times reached out to BLM Global Network Foundation for comment, but did not receive a response by publication time.

In a live video posted on her Facebook page on Dec. 11, Dickerson said she was not in custody.

“I cannot make an official comment about what transpired today. I am home. I am safe. I have confidence in our team,” she said. “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 BLM movement first emerged in 2013 after the acquittal of George Zimmerman, the neighborhood watch volunteer who killed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Florida.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.