BLM FOUNDER MISAPPROPRIATED 66 PERCENT OF DONNATIONS

Just 33% of the $90 MILLION that Black Lives Matter received in donations went towards helping charitable causes - as shock report reveals co-founder's graffiti-artist brother was paid over $1.7M

A new report shows that Black Lives Matter donated just 33 percent of its wealth on charitable causes between 2020 and 2022.  One of the group's main benefactors was Paul Cullors, the brother of co-founder Patrisse, who received over $1.7 in salary and contracts 

 

By Paul Farrell

 

Daily Mail

May 27, 2023

 

Friends and family of Patrisse Cullors were some of the biggest benefactors of Black Lives Matter's donations 

 

Just 33 percent of Black Lives Matter's accumulated donations of $90 million found its way to charitable causes, a shocking new report says. 

The group doled out around $30 million between 2020 and 2022, during which time it collected $90 million in donations as it promoted itself as the preeminent civil rights organization in the US. 

Among the benefactors of BLM's paltry donations were friends and family of co-founder Patrisse Cullors, in particular her graffiti artist brother, Paul, who received $1.7 million in salary and contracts during that time period.

Cullors' brother was on the board of BLM, received a salary of just under $140,000 while his company, Black Ties Security was paid over $750,000 by the group for 'security services,' reports the New York Post. 

 

Cullors' brother, Paul, received $1.7 million in salary and contracts from the group for providing security as well as his board seat

 

A year earlier, his company, Cullors Security LLC, received $841,000, for services. 

In 2021, he paid $637,000 for a home in a Los Angeles-suburb.  

Among the causes that the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, which is based in Oakland, contributed to were pro-black and trans causes as well as anti-police efforts, according to the Post's report. The newspaper said that the total number donated was $30,498,722. 

Of that $30.4 milliion, $4.5 million went to non-profits that are run by known BLM supporters and associates. Despite the massive donations, BLM posted losses of $8.5 million for 2021. 

One group that was a recipient of a grant was the Tamir Rice Foundation, named for the 12-year-old Cleveland boy who was shot dead by Timothy Loehmann, a 26-year-old white police officer, in 2014. 

The foundation, run by Rice's mother, has been critical of Black Lives Matter in the past. 'They are benefiting off the blood of our loved ones, and they won’t even talk to us, Samaria Rice told the Post in 2021.

The biggest grant given out by BLM went to the Love Not Blood Campaign, a group set up by Cephus Johnson following the shooting death of his nephew, Oscar Grant, by a police officer in Oakland in 2009. 

Grant was played by Michael B. Jordan in the award-winning movie Fruitvale Station, detailing the shooting. 

 

It has recently emerged that BLM is suffering a financial crisis after donations tanked amid reports of opulent spending by board members

 

Other recipients included the Trans Justice Housing Project in Atlanta, which got $200,000, the same amount was given to the group Reuniting African Descendants while the Michael Brown Chosen for Change Foundation was given nearly $300,000.

That foundation had its non-profit status taken away by the IRS over a failure to provide proper returns. 

Brown's shooting death in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014 at the hands of police officer Darren Wilson caused national outrage. 

The Post report details that between 2020 and 2021, donations to BLM sank by $67 million from $76 million to just $9.2 million.  

On Friday, it was reported that Patrisse Cullors has been quietly let go from her Warner Bros TV deal after producing no content. 

The BLM activist posted a message on Instagram just days ago accusing the media of 'lying' about her.

'For the last 2.5 years I’ve been relentlessly attacked by the media. So many lies and so much mis and disinformation. They are hell bent on destroying my life,' she wrote. 'Even though I’ve not been at BLM since 2021 my face continues to be used to spread so many untruths. I’m exhausted and I fear for my life daily. The worst is so many people have just stayed silent.

'Many haven’t and I’m grateful for those who have helped combat the dangerous lies. But y’all. I don’t know how much more of this I can take.'

Cullors became a co-founder of BLM in 2013 before stepping down in 2021. The movement started in courtyard of her Los Angeles home a decade ago.

Now, Black Lives Matter's national organization is at risk of going bankrupt after its finances plunged $8.5million into the red last year - while simultaneously handing multiple staff seven-figure salaries.

Financial disclosures obtained by The Washington Free Beacon show the perilous state of BLM's Global Network Foundation, which officially emerged in November 2020, as a more formal way of structuring the civil rights movement.

Yet, despite the financial controversy and scrutiny, BLM GNF continued to hire relatives of Cullors, and several board members.

 

Cullors, 39, was expected to produce shows across the Warner Brothers' multiple revenue streams, including animated, children's content, scripted and unscripted shows.

 

For the previous year, 2021, tax filings revealed that BLM paid a company owned by Damon Turner, the father of Cullors' child, nearly $970,000 to help 'produce live events' and provide other 'creative services.'

'While Patrisse Cullors was forced to resign due to charges of using BLM's funds for her personal use, it looks like she's still keeping it all in the family,' said Paul Kamenar, an attorney for the National Legal and Policy Center watchdog group.

A consulting firm run by BLM board member Shalomyah Bowers was paid $2.1million for providing the organization with operational support Bowers said the last BLM board approved the contract with his firm when he was not a board member.

The filing also revealed that Cullors reimbursed BLM $73,000 for a charter flight and paid the foundation $390 for private use of its $6million Los Angeles mansion.

Bowers, who took over from Cullors when she resigned, also benefitted handsomely from the group: in 2022, his consultancy firm was paid $1.7million for management and consulting services, the Free Beacon reported.

And the sister of former Black Lives Matter board member Raymond Howard was also employed in a lucrative role as a consultant.

Danielle Edwards's firm, New Impact Partners, was paid $1.1million for consulting services in 2022, the Free Beacon said.

BLM GNF also agreed to pay an additional $600,000 to an unidentified former board member's consulting firm 'in connection with a contract dispute'.

The non-profit group ran an $8.5million deficit, and its investment accounts fell in value by nearly $10million in the most recent tax year, financial disclosures show.

The group logged a $961,000 loss on a securities sale of $172,000, suggesting the group sustained an 85 percent loss on the transaction. Further details of that security have not been shared.

And the cash flowing into BLM's coffers has dropped dramatically.

Donations plunged by 88 percent between 2021 and 2022, from $77million to just $9.3million for the most recent financial year.

A year later, in May 2022, it was revealed Black Lives Matter spent more than $12million on luxury properties in Los Angeles and in Toronto - including a $6.3million 10,000-square-foot property in Canada that was purchased as part of a $8million 'out of country grant.'

The Toronto property was bought with grant money that was meant for 'activities to educate and support black communities, and to purchase and renovate property for charitable use.'

The group had said it was planning to use the property as main headquarters in Canada, and it has now been named the Wilseed Center for Arts and Activism.