$427,000 In Salaries, No Employees: FBI Raid Puts Baltimore City Nonprofit In Spotlight

A Baltimore City nonprofit that received $1 million in federal pandemic funding reported more than $427,000 in salaries and wages while listing zero employees on its federal tax filing, according to Chris Papst, lead investigator for FOX45′s Project Baltimore.

Papst has tracked nonprofit KEYS Empowers since FBI agents raided the nonprofit linked to a Baltimore City school board member who abruptly resigned.

KEYS Empowers’ latest Form 990 filing, covering 2024, reported $2,001,754 in revenue, with $427,201 paid out in salaries and wages. But as Papst noted, the filing lists no employees.

Papst added more color to KEYS Empowers’ filing:

• $2,001,754 in revenue
• $427,201 in salaries and wages
• $79,701 in travel expenses
• $242,288 for conferences, conventions, and meetings
• Zero employees

At the center of KEYS Empowers is Mujahid Muhammad, who resigned as a member of the Baltimore City Board of School Commissioners after the FBI raided his nonprofit.

“I’m extremely concerned,” said Torrey Snow, a contributing member of the Baltimore Sun’s editorial board.

Snow continued, “Maryland taxpayers are heavily subsidizing the work in Baltimore City, and they need to know that officials that are in these areas are keeping an eye on where this money is going.”

In 2022, left-wing Mayor Brandon Scott’s office announced a $1 million award in American Rescue Plan Act funding to KEYS Empowers.

“If public money is going into these nonprofits, it is the official’s responsibility to ensure that these nonprofits are engaging in activities that are necessary and benefiting the public,” stated Snow.

Publicly available data show KEYS Empowers’ corporate structure and link Muhammad and Ashiah Parker, both appointed to the Baltimore City school board by Mayor Scott, to the nonprofit. This points to overlapping nonprofit leadership, school board appointments linked to Scott, and government funding for a highly questionable nonprofit.

The relationship map places Mujahid Muhammad between not just KEYS Empowers but also K.E.Y.S. Development T.A. LLC. 

Reporting more than $427,000 in salaries and wages yet listing zero employees is a major red flag.

The questions remain: who received the taxpayers’ money, what services did they provide, and who approved the payments? Whether this is simply sloppy Form 990 reporting or something more serious, taxpayers deserve answers.