BLM Shuffles Fortune to Co-Founder's Wife's Organization, And the Multimillion-Dollar Purchase That Followed Has the Group's Activists Furious
Questions are being raised about who is doing exactly what with the millions of dollars raised by Black Lives Matter.
A report Saturday by the New York Post says that in July, the Black Lives Matter Global Foundation Network transferred several million dollars to a group called M4BJ. The group was set up in part by Janaya Khan, the wife of Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Khan-Cullors. Khan is also a co-founder of Black Lives Matter Toronto.
Khan-Cullors stepped down from her Black Lives Matter role last year amid controversy over her purchase of multi-million-dollar mansions in Georgia and Los Angeles.
The money transfer was part of the cash used to buy a $6.3 million mansion was formerly the headquarters of the Community Party of Canada, the Post reported.
That drew some criticism.
“For BLM Canada to take money from BLM Global Network [Foundation] for a building without consulting the community was unethical,” Canadian BLM activists Sarah Jama and Sahra Soudi said in a statement on Twitter recently, according to Fox News.
“For BLM Canada to refuse to answer questions from young Black organizers goes against the spirit of movement-building.”
Meanwhile, the Black Lives Matter parent organization appears to be leaderless while holding an estimated $60 million in cash, according to the Washington Examiner.
“Like a giant ghost ship full of treasure drifting in the night with no captain, no discernible crew, and no clear direction,” CharityWatch Executive Director Laurie Styron said of group, according to the Examiner.
The Examiner report says the address the group lists on its tax forms is wrong and two supposed leaders say they have nothing to do with the group.
Paul Kamenar, counsel for conservative watchdog group the National Legal and Policy Center, said a full audit is called for.
“This is grossly irregular and improper for a nonprofit with $60 million in its coffers,” Kamenar said, according to the Examiner.
“Bottom line: Lot of questionable financial activity, organizational structure, location of the books, etc. that call for a full investigation,” Kamenar said, raising the prospect of potential fraud.
Activists Makani Themba and Monifa Bandele were picked to lead the group when Khan-Cullors left, but said they never did.
“We never actually started in the position, so we never received any detailed information,” Themba said, according to the Examiner.
The Examiner said in its reporting that board members Shalomyah Bowers and Raymond Howard did not speak to it for its report.
According to the Examiner, charity expert Doug White said the lack of clear information is a red flag.
“Sixty million dollars is not chump change,” White told the Examiner. “What BLM does is of tremendous social importance. That they won’t give an honest or complete or straightforward answer in regards to its leadership is a concern. Not only do they not have an executive director right now, we think, but they also don’t want to tell you how the organization is being run.”
Styron of CharityWatch said Black Lives Matter’s 2020 forms should all be filed by now.
“Irrespective of where any person falls on the political spectrum or what their position is on any social justice issue, hopefully, we can all agree that tax-subsidized public charities have an ethical responsibility to be transparent with the public about how they are operating and how the donations they receive are being used,” Styron said, according to the Examiner.
“The amount of money involved here is not insignificant.”
Truth and Accuracy
We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.
