What started as a mission to eliminate police brutality ended in a scandal that has a non-profit founder in big trouble in the District of Columbia.
On November 25, D.C. Attorney General Brian L. Schwalb sued Raheem AI and its founder Brandon Anderson for “violating the District’s nonprofit and workers’ rights laws.”
According to the Attorney General’s office website, Anderson has been accused of stealing $75,000 from an organization meant to change how the community interacts with local law enforcement to fund his lavish vacations and luxury shopping sprees.
DC non-profits are required by law to have a President and Treasurer to keep operations and finances separate. The AG says Raheem AI has been operating without a treasurer since 2020, allowing Anderson to have unchecked control over the organizations financials.
In addition to the misuse of funds, the AG says the organization failed to pay its DC-based Deputy Director “tens of thousands of dollars in earned wages” and forced her into signing an illegal non-compete clause.
Anderson founded Raheem AI in 2017 in honor of his fiancé, Raheem, who was killed by the police in Oklahoma in 2007.
“He was driving a car that the officer said was stolen. The car had never been stolen. In fact, it was the car that me and my partner had saved up to buy,” Anderson said in a 2021 interview. “My partner’s death threw me into two years of clinical depression. The loss of my partner — the killing of my partner — by the police changed my life forever.”
Anderson envisioned Raheem AI as providing people with a means to file complaints against the police from their smartphones. It would also eventually provide an alternative to 911, sending aid workers instead of police to deal with non-violent incidents like drug overdoses and mental health issues.
But while the organization raised over four million dollars in donations, the idea, which Anderson called “Yelp for police,” had technical issues, as some police departments around the country accept complaints online, while others need people to make their complaints over the phone or in person at a police station, according to reporting from The New York Times.
Attorney General Schwalb says his office is prepared to go after Anderson for using a non-profit for his personal gain.
“Brandon Anderson misused charitable donations to fund lavish vacations and shopping sprees, and the Raheem AI board of directors let him get away with it,” D.C. Attorney General Brian L. Schwalb said in a written statement on the department’s website. “My office will not allow people to masquerade behind noble causes while violating the law.”
