Herdosia 鈥淜alambayi鈥 Bentum, right, candidate for alderman in 最新杏吧原创鈥 Ward 3, speaks on Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2020, at a campaign kickoff for Ticharwa Masimba, left, a fellow candidate for Ward 21.
JEFFERSON CITY聽鈥 Missouri election regulators have levied a $40,000 fine against an unsuccessful 最新杏吧原创 aldermanic candidate with connections to a Black empowerment group.
Herdosia 鈥淜alambayi鈥 Bentum, who lost a bid for the 3rd Ward post in the 2021 municipal election, was among two candidates fielded by the African People鈥檚 Socialist Party, whose chairman, Omali Yeshitela, was convicted in September of conspiring to act as a Russian agent.
According to an order filed by the Missouri Ethics Commission on Nov. 14, Bentum ran an unregistered campaign committee in an office on the north side. She didn鈥檛 report the rent as an expense in violation of state regulations and she didn鈥檛 report the names of her campaign treasurer after her original treasurer left.
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From October 2020 through June 2021, the order said Bentum made 182 expenditures totaling nearly $24,000 without reporting the costs.
The campaign also paid a $330 Ameren electric bill for its headquarters, even though the committee had not been in existence when the power was used, the order noted.
Bentum said the probe left a 鈥渟our taste鈥 in her mouth but has agreed to make monthly payments to pay off the fine.
鈥淚 feel like I am under attack,鈥 she told the Post-Dispatch on Monday. 鈥淚鈥檓 not a thief. The only thing I wanted to do is make the world a better place.鈥
She said some campaign records were lost when the FBI raided the office where her campaign operation was located, leaving her unable to provide paperwork to the MEC that could have helped exonerate her.
The embattled group operated out of a 9,000-square-foot north city event space at 4101 West Florissant dubbed 鈥淯huru House.鈥 Uhuru is the name of a larger anti-colonial movement Yeshitela founded in 1991 coming from the word 鈥渇reedom鈥 in Swahili.
In addition to fielding Bentum and another candidate for alderman, the group has torn down a handful of derelict properties on the north side with intentions to rebuild and opened a community garden.
The group also has struggled to get a permit from City Hall to open the Uhuru Bakery and Cafe at 3719 West Florissant Avenue because of neighborhood opposition and concern over the federal convictions.
Yeshitela founded the organization in St. Petersburg, Florida, before expanding to 最新杏吧原创 in 2017, drawn to the city by the Ferguson protests.
Prosecutors alleged Yeshitela and others took trips to Russia and parroted Russian propaganda, particularly about its invasion of Ukraine, to sow divisiveness in the U.S. Yeshitela has called for 鈥渦nity with Russia in its defensive war in Ukraine against the world colonial powers,鈥 according to the 2023 indictment. A jury acquitted Yeshitela and two others of the more serious crime of acting as a foreign agent but upheld the conspiracy charges.
Under the agreement, Bentum must pay at least $150 per month for 42 months and the full amount of the fine will be waived if she has no further campaign finance violations.
A group of about 45 people, most of them white, marched Saturday morning up South Grand Boulevard and held a rally at the northeast corner of Tower Grove Park as part of the March for Reparations, which took place in five cities across the country.
