The FBI arrested a Black Lives Matter activist on fraud and money laundering charges after it was discovered he used donations raised for the group on Facebook for a variety of personal items.
It’s unclear if any of the $466,000 raised by Sir Maejor Page, 32, went to any charitable of philanthropic endeavor at all.
Page was apparently a familiar face in Atlanta where he led several protests against the death of George Floyd. He was arrested in Toledo, Ohio, where he had purchased a $112,000 house.
Page founded Black Lives Matter of Greater Atlanta in 2016 and this year took in more than $466,000 in donations in June, July and August, Desorbo said.
“In sum, Page has spent over $200,000 on personal items generated from donations received through BLMGA Facebook page with no identifiable purchase or expenditure for social or racial justice,” he said.
The FBI in Toledo said Page pledged to use those donations “for George Floyd” but instead used the money make purchases related to food, dining, entertainment, clothing, furniture, a home security system, tailored suits and accessories.
A local TV station in Atlanta was investigating Page for impersonating a law enforcement officer several times.
But on Dec. 27, 2014 he was arrested and charged by the APD for impersonating a police officer. Police say that Sir Maejor “arrested” a woman at a gas station he was working at as a security guard for carrying an open container. Police say he was dressed like a police officer — carrying a Glock, a stun gun and pepper spray — and identified himself as a member of the Fugitive Task Force when he called it in.
More recently, one witness said that Page showed up at a Black Lives Matter rally last November wearing a bullet-proof vest and a body camera, walking around with a gun on his hip.
To be fair, BLM activists had Page pegged as a con man from the start.
But others who claim to carry the Black Lives Matter mantle denounce him as a fraud, a violent homophobe and a con-artist who started his own group Black Lives Matter of Greater Atlanta after he was bounced out of the city’s official chapter.
“Who is he and why does he keep showing up at protests?” asked Dawn O’Neal a leader in the Black Lives Matter and in Rise Up Georgia, a group that does a lot of work around mental health. “How is he in a meeting with the mayor when the people who set it up were not allowed in? He is a dangerous person with violent tendencies, who seeks out the press and follows the work that we have been doing and gets in front of the camera. Enough is enough.”
Gadflies will always prey on those standing on the outskirts of the crowd. But Mr. Page appears to have hit the jackpot. And he was no fringe player. He met with the mayor, he was a familiar face on TV news, his opinion was sought out by the media, no doubt because of the colorful persona he affected in public.
Didn’t anyone in the media read this guy’s police record? The activists knew exactly who he was, but the politicians were too busy genuflecting to the mob to care if they were being bamboozled by a flim-flam man.
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