Black Lives Matter used donations to buy a lavish California home for nearly $6 million, according to a new report released this week. The three female leaders of the social justice movement – Patrisse Cullors, Alicia Garza and Melina Abdulla – recorded a YouTube video outside the “secretly bought” luxury home while marking the first anniversary of the murder of George Gloyd, New York magazine reported.
It is not the first time BLM has faced intense scrutiny for its financial management. Last year, Cullors said she was weeks removed from being in “survival mode” after an April 2021 report from The New York Post uncovered her previous purchase of four high-end American homes worth $3.2 million.
“It’s because we’re powerful, because we are winning,” Cullors said at the time as she rebutted what she characterised as right-wing media attacks. “It’s because we are threatening the establishment, we’re threatening white supremacy.”
Now, Cullors has slammed the latest report on the $5.8 million California home, claiming that the report is a “racist” attack on the organisation.
Cullors and her two colleagues did not disclose any details of the California upscale home seen behind them in the now-private YouTube video. The home is 6,500 square-foot and has more than six bedrooms and bathrooms, as well as a swimming pool and parking for more than 20 cars, according to a real estate listing cited by the magazine.
The large property was purchased in October 2020 using funds which had been donated to the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, the explosive report states.
The seven-bedroom residence was purchased by a man named Dyane Pascall a fortnight after BLMGNF received $66.5 million from its fiscal sponsor earlier that month. Pascall is the financial manager for Janaya and Patrisse Consulting — an LLC operated by Cullors and her spouse, Janaya Khan, New York Magazine reported.
Ownership was transferred within a week to an LLC in Delaware, ensuring the property’s owner wouldn’t be disclosed, the report says.
BLM’s co-founder Cullors was forced to resign in May as the group’s executive director as criticism mounted over buying three homes in the Los Angeles area and another outside Atlanta. The report alleges that the additional purchase of the almost $6 million home had not been previously reported, with BLM officials trying to keep its existence a secret from a journalist looking into the transaction.
BLMGHF board member Shalomyah Bowers defended the purchase of the residence, telling the magazine that the foundation had “always planned” to disclose the home’s legal filings this May and it doesn’t serve anyone as a personal residence. Bowers said the home was purchased to be used as a “housing and studio space” for recipients of the Black Joy Creators Fellowship.
However, he did not spell out why little content had been produced there over the space of 17 months if the residence was in fact intended to be a creative space, the report states.
Online, the social justice movement has been blasted over the the revelation.
“Tried to tell my English friends that BLM was not what they thought it was! It’s not about helping black lives at all. So many of us called it out at the start, and got called racist…” one user said.
Tried to tell my English friends BLM was not what they thought it was! BLM doing more doggy dealings. Buying 5.8M dollar mansions 😂😂😂😂. It’s not about helping black lives at all. So many of us called it out at the start, and got called racist… https://t.co/iabW2H2XtD.
— leilani dowding 🌸🚜 ☮️ (@LeilaniDowding) April 7, 2022
“Just like real communists, BLM wants your money to live a life of luxury,” US Senator and Republican Marsha Blackburn said on Twitter.
Just like real communists, BLM wants your money to live a life of luxury. https://t.co/1tJTVbzWZ6
— Sen. Marsha Blackburn (@MarshaBlackburn) April 6, 2022
Ms Cullors, who founded the movement in 2013, is a self-described “Marxist” who has faced criticism after it was reported that she owns four properties, including a $1.4 million house in Malibu and a ranch in Georgia.
BLM said she had “received a total of $120,000 since the organisation’s inception” and Ms Cullors strongly denies that she has misused donations to purchase property for herself.
Since Ms Cullors’ resignation, it appears that a power vacuum has emerged and it has been revealed that there is no single person in charge of the group’s significant funds.
Shortly after the reports, she left the organisation. In 2020, the organisation confirmed it had $60 million in its bank account, but it is not clear where that money is.
As reported by Gript’s Dr Matt Treacy, BLM garnered massive and universally favourable attention in Ireland from mid-2020, ensuring that protests were allowed to take place despite strict Covid lockdown rules. Dublin-based NGO Spunout have come under scrutiny for encouraging support for the movement, with people being encouraged to donate to Black Lives Matter.
Treacy questioned why, given the serious questions regarding Black Lives Matter in the United States, Irish organisations are still supporting the group, described by the Attorney General of Indiana, as well as black Conservative commentator Candace Owens, as a “scam.”