Yet another Black Lives Matter activist has been convicted of defrauding donors out of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
In a press release on Thursday, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Ohio confirmed that Sir Maejor Page, 35, of Toledo, was convicted wire fraud and three counts of money laundering following a six-day trial.
The release stated:
According to court documents and testimony, in 2016, Page created a Facebook page for “Black Lives Matter of Greater Atlanta” (“BLMGA”) and registered this organization as a domestic non-profit with the Georgia Secretary of State Corporation’s Division. In 2017, the IRS approved Page’s request granting BLMGA tax-exempt status under Section 503(c)(3) of the tax code, but dissolved this status in 2019.
Page nonetheless accepted donations after falsely portraying BLMGA to the public as a legitimate charity engaged in social justice work, when in fact, it was not. Instead, Page used the money that individual donors gave to BLMGA not for social justice causes, but rather to buy items for his own personal use, such as a house and furniture. Page also committed money-laundering crimes when he bought these items with the donations that he fraudulently obtained.
United States Attorney Rebecca C. Lutzko, for the Northern District of Ohio also weighed in on the verdict:
The United States Attorney’s Office prioritizes the prosecution of white-collar criminal conduct, particularly conduct involving deceptive schemes that selfishly exploit a charitable donor’s goodwill for personal gain.
The donors to BLMGA thought they were giving their hard-earned money to a cause they believed in. But instead of using it to support that cause, Page used it for himself. The jury’s verdict is a warning to every fraudster that when you misrepresent how donations or other money given to you in trust will be used, you will be prosecuted and punished.
According to The New York Times, Page stole around $450,000.
The conviction is merely the latest in a litany of similar cases where individuals invovled with the far-left Black Lives Matter organization have been caught skimming hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars for their own personal gain.
Last year, even mainstream media organizations acknowledged that only a third of donations actually went towards charitable causes, while those at the highest ranks of the movement financed luxury lifestyles with donor funds.
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