Black Lives Matter Secretly Bought a $6 Million House
Category: News & Politics
Via: texan1211 • 2 years ago • 77 commentsBy: Sean Campbell (Intelligencer)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Photo-Illustration: Intelligencer; Photos: Getty
On a sunny day late last spring, three leaders of the Black Lives Matter movement — Patrisse Cullors, Alicia Garza, and Melina Abdullah — sat around a table on the patio of an expensive house in Southern California. The women were recording a YouTube video to mark the first anniversary of George Floyd's murder, and they discussed their racial-justice work and the difficulties they had faced over the year.
"For me, the hardest moments have been the right-wing-media machine just leveraging literally all its weight against me, against our movement, against BLM the organization," Cullors said. "I'm some weeks out now from a lot of the noise, so I have more perspective, right? While I was in it, I was in survival mode." She was referring to an April 2021 article in the New York Post that revealed her purchase of four homes for nearly $3 million. The disclosures had contributed to the idea that there is a disturbing gap between the fortunes of the movement's most visible figures and on-the-ground activists across the country, and Cullors resigned as executive director of Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation on May 27, within a few days of the patio chat.
"I think they've attempted to cancel us, but they have not been successful in canceling us," Abdullah said at another point in the conversation. "They've attempted to say — and I'm just gonna say it — 'She bought some damn houses. We gonna cancel her.'" Garza cut in with a comment seemingly addressed to critics: "Y'all don't know shit about what it takes to live in a box here."
None of the women acknowledged the house behind them. It's far from a box, with more than 6,500 square feet, more than half a dozen bedrooms and bathrooms, several fireplaces, a soundstage, a pool and bungalow, and parking for more than 20 cars, according to real-estate listings. The California property was purchased for nearly $6 million in cash in October 2020 with money that had been donated to BLMGNF.
The transaction has not been previously reported, and Black Lives Matter's leadership had hoped to keep the house's existence a secret. Documents, emails, and other communications I've seen about the luxury property's purchase and day-to-day operation suggest that it has been handled in ways that blur, or cross, boundaries between the charity and private companies owned by some of its leaders. It creates the impression that money donated to the cause of racial justice has been spent in ways that benefit the leaders of Black Lives Matter personally.
On March 30, I asked the organization questions about the house, which is known internally as "Campus." Afterward, leaders circulated an internal strategy memo with possible responses, ranging from "Can we kill the story?" to "Our angle — needs to be to deflate ownership of the property." The memo includes bullet points explaining that "Campus is part of cultural arm of the org — potentially as an 'influencer house,' where abolition+ based content is produced by artists & creatives." Another bullet is headed "Accounting/990 modifications" and reads in part: "need to first make sure it's legally okay to use as we plan to use it." The memo also describes the property as a "safehouse" for leaders whose safety has been threatened. The two notions — that the house is simultaneously a confidential refuge and a place for broadcasting to the widest possible audience — are somewhat in tension. The memo notes: "Holes in security story: Use in public YT videos."
In an emailed statement on April 1, Shalomyah Bowers, a BLMGNF board member, said that the organization bought Campus "with the intention for it to serve as housing and studio space for recipients of the Black Joy Creators Fellowship." The fellowship, which "provides recording resources and dedicated space for Black creatives to launch content online and in real life focused on abolition, healing justice, urban agriculture and food justice, pop culture, activism, and politics," was announced the following morning.
Bowers also said in the statement that BLMGNF had "always planned" to disclose the house in legal filings this May, that it does not serve as anyone's personal residence, and that purchasing property via private LLCs is customary in real estate as a way of protecting assets from litigation and liability. The statement did not address why, if the house was primarily intended to be a creative space, relatively little content has been produced there over the course of 17 months.
Even if everything about the house is above board, the general air of secrecy is out of step with the transparency that is expected of charitable or tax-exempt organizations. The size of the acquisition could expose the group to criticism. "That's a very legitimate critique," says Jacob Harold, a former CEO of GuideStar and the co-founder of Candid, an information service that reports on nonprofits. "It's not a critique that says what you're doing is illegal or even unethical; it might just be unstrategic. Why aren't you spending it on policy or, you know, other strategies that an organization might take to address the core issues around Black Lives Matter?"
Even an appearance of impropriety or mismanagement threatens to deter donors and harm the larger movement for racial equity. On this score, some of the harshest criticism of BLMGNF has come from within. Internal emails dating to 2016 show activists voicing concern about how donations were being spent and how the organization was being run, and frustrations only continued to mount. In the fall of 2020, ten city chapters issued a public statement rebuking the global network for its opacity, and the families of some Black victims of police violence have complained that they have seen little of the funds that have flowed to the movement's most visible facet.
George Floyd's death triggered an outpouring of contributions to BLMGNF, and in October 2020, the organization received an infusion of $66.5 million from its fiscal sponsor — an intermediary commonly used by fledgling nonprofits to process donations. Two weeks later, a man named Dyane Pascall purchased the seven-bedroom house that would become known as Campus. According to California business-registration documents, Pascall is the financial manager for Janaya and Patrisse Consulting, an LLC run by Cullors and her spouse, Janaya Khan; Pascall is also the chief financial officer for Trap Heals, a nonprofit led by Damon Turner, the father of Cullors's only child.
Within a week, Pascall transferred ownership of the house to an LLC established in Delaware by the law firm Perkins Coie. The maneuver ensured that the ultimate identity of the property's new owner was not disclosed to the public. After the transfer, Black Lives Matter leaders began using the house in various ways, including as a set for recording videos and staying overnight when they didn't feel safe at their own homes. The property's upkeep — cleaning, pool maintenance, security — has been handled by a loose mixture of people working for BLMGNF, Janaya and Patrisse Consulting, the Bowers Consulting Firm, or other entities. Bowers, who also serves as BLMGNF's deputy executive director, has in the past overseen payments to Trap Heals from entities that Cullors leads, including an $86,000 fee from a nonprofit called Reform LA Jails and a nearly $150,000 fee from the Black Lives Matter Political Action Committee.
On the secure-messaging platform Signal, in a text chat named "BLM Security Hub," around two dozen participants from BLMGNF, Bowers Consulting, Janaya and Patrisse Consulting, and various other organizations and companies commingle. One conversation from June 2021 — after Cullors announced her resignation — concerns her assistant confronting a man who had been found snooping around the premises. Paul Cullors, Patrisse's brother, whose title is head of physical security, updated the group on the situation. Earlier entries in the Signal chat show him performing the same role for properties Cullors purchased with her own funds, which she has said came from book and media deals. Other internal records indicate Cullors's mother was approved for a cleaning job at Campus and that Cullors's sister signed the same kind of nondisclosure agreement as other employees at the property, although it's not clear if the sister worked there.
Cullors has also used the Campus house in ways that are probably not in line with what Black Lives Matter donors intended for their dollars. Back in April 2021, Cullors uploaded a video to her personal YouTube channel titled "I Try Baking a Family Recipe for the FIRST Time *INTENSE*" — the first in an intended series called Patrisse Tries, in which she would attempt unfamiliar tasks. In the nearly 13-minute clip, she prepares a peach cobbler with her aunt at the Campus kitchen island, making use of its soapstone countertops and high-end appliances. (Other videos from Cullors's personal YouTube channel also appear to match images of the house's interior shown in real-estate listings.) It's an example of how Cullors acted as both the head of BLMGNF and cultivated a lucrative public profile at the same time; when she quit the organization, she said it was to focus on media deals she'd signed with a book publisher and Warner Bros. (A lawyer for Cullors declined to comment on the record.)
Nonprofit experts say that any apparent intermingling of resources among BLMGNF, Cullors, and outside entities might jeopardize the charity's tax-exempt status. Lloyd Hitoshi Mayer, a professor at the University of Notre Dame Law School who specializes in nonprofits, said the details of the house's management deserve closer scrutiny. If there are problems with the group's tax filings, there could be civil and criminal liabilities for the people and organizations involved. He said that investigations by state and federal agencies could be warranted. "They're all indicators that the money may not be going where it's supposed to be going," he says.
Other conversations on the BLM Security Hub chat show efforts to monitor social media for negative mentions of BLMGNF, with members using their influence with the platforms to have such remarks removed. It's currently not possible to share the Post's article on Cullors's home purchases on Facebook because the site's parent company, Meta, has labeled the content "abusive." At other points, Bowers and his associates direct a private investigator to look into BLMGNF detractors and journalists, including me.
BLMGNF was awarded tax-exempt status from the IRS in December 2020, two months after the house's purchase. The distinction meant the group would have to disclose information about donors and expenditures in an annual filing known as a 990. But BLMGNF has not submitted those forms for 2020 or 2021. It also has problems at the state level: The Washington Examiner reported in February 2022 that California's attorney general told the group it was considered delinquent. BLMGNF has since retained the high-profile Democratic lawyer Marc Elias and maneuvered to get more time to formally submit data from 2020 by switching from calendar-year to fiscal-year tracking. In the meantime, contributions to the group have been essentially shut down. AmazonSmile suspended the organization from its platform in February 2022, and BLMGNF has removed donation links from its own website.
The group informally released a batch of financial information in February 2021, when it said it had taken in more than $90 million in 2020 and still had $60 million on hand. The house was not mentioned. Soon after the report, local activists went public with complaints that they felt unsupported by BLMGNF despite their pleas for help. Two mothers who lost their sons to police violence demanded the organization stop using their names to raise funds.
Real-estate purchases have been a problem for the BLMGNF outside of the U.S. as well. In the summer of 2021, BLM Canada announced that it was purchasing a mansion in Toronto and hoped to establish a Black community hub. Conservative-media outlets later reported that public-property records indicated the transaction involved a transfer of approximately $6.3 million to a Canadian nonprofit, M4BJ, that was established in part by Janaya Khan, who was born in Toronto. Two BLM Toronto organizers released a resignation letter expressing their frustrations. "We have written this because our many attempts to bring up concerns were met with denial, gaslighting, and a refusal to acknowledge requests for accountability," the organizers said. "We were told that concerns about financial transparency and community accountability were rumours, 'not a big deal,' and whispers from so-called 'counter-organizers.'"
Tory Russell, a prominent activist in Ferguson, Missouri, said that he felt depressed when he learned about about the California property. "It's a waste of resources," he said. While Black Lives Matter at the national level is flush, he's seen local activists fall into poverty and become homeless. Last year, Russell put out a video with Michael Brown Sr., whose son was killed by a police officer in August 2014, demanding money from BLMGNF to help people living in Ferguson, and he's since been struggling to raise $1.2 million for a community center. "They shouldn't be walking around no Black people, no Black communities," he said of the organization's leaders. "They should be somewhere in shame."
In the patio video marking the anniversary of George Floyd's death, the conversation among Cullors, Garza, and Abdullah turned to the people who have faulted their leadership online. "Who the fuck are you? You ain't done shit," Abdullah said. Garza added that she discounted criticism from people she didn't know personally. "I don't need to be accountable to you," she said. "I don't know what accountability looks like with people that I don't know and have never talked to."
Cullors told the women at the table, "My therapist told me, she said, 'What you've been through, most people would not survive' … And I don't feel like I'm just surviving. I feel like I'm really thriving."
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Looks like BLM 'leaders" have managed to scam millions!
It was the perfect scam. First make a bunch of liberal white elitists feel guilty about being white. Then come up with an organization that comes up with a catchy slogan in it's name. Then get the media to promote their organization telling everyone how great they are. Then tell the liberal white elitists that the way to help alleviate their guilt is to give money to an organization that only cares about itself.
And the liberal white elitists fell for it hook, line and sinker. They gave lots of money to make themselves feel better about themselves.
So... If a black person can buy a house he must have stolen the money for it?
Did he say, or even imply that? Why do people make things up when they can't refute what is actually said?
The headline is blm people buy a house. The story goes on to explain that they must have stolen the money. Texan posted the story so... Yeah. He did imply that.
Your comment leads one to believe you are talking about all blacks, not just the one. Nowhere in the article does it even hint at they must have stolen the money to buy a house BECAUSE they are black.
Since no one has claimed that here, where did you pull that crap from?
Stop making this a race thing.
But in some peoples eyes that would leave nothing on 95% of the articles.
The entire blm movement is a race thing so if your article is about blm your article is a race thing. If your article isn't about blm then it's just black folks bought a house so they must have stolen the money... Which is also a race thing btw.
Maybe the article is like Seinfeld, ...... about nothing.
If that is what you believe, why are you commenting?
Wow, great example of convoluted thinking, thanks
BTW the article seems to be about the BLM organization, not the BLM movement. Two very different things
You're right John. It's a double nothing burger with cheese designed to infuriate the angry.
Do you hear a lot of "dog whistles" too?
Seems like the only angry ones are you and JR.
Wait, I thought the BLM leadership was communists .
LETTER: BLM is a racist, communist movement | Peninsula ...
BLM is not only racist but also communist. The movement is led by self- avowed communists. Patrisse Cullors, Black Lives Matter co-founder as shown on the blacklivesmatter.com website,
Living like Kings while claiming to be a commoner is what communists do. It's the entire history of the Soviet Union, Cuba etc..
As Orwell put it in Animal Farm, some animals are more equal than others.
The Soviet Union and Cuba were/are communist political systems. The US is not. There is no gain in claiming to be a communist in the United States. BLM is not communist, is it?
Deflection. Communism isn't the topic.
Coincidentally, last summer they bought the former HQ of the Communist Party of Canada. They got a good deal on the 10,000 square foot mansion in downtown Toronto for approximately $6.3 million US dollars.
Of course there is. BLM isn't a political party contesting elections, it's a special interest group trying to influence left-wingers, Nothing establishes your left wing bona fides better than claiming allegiance to a party that's murdered over 100 million people. It's chic to a communist. Remember your hero Jon Stewart giving a shout out to the vile Angela Davis just the other day in his racialist struggle session? It gives Stewart credability on the left to cheer for communists. Many progressives actually celebrate commies like they imagine right wingers celebrate Nazis.
What a ridiculous comment.
Says someone who dragged communism into the conversation for no earthly reason!
Well, as Reagan put it, our liberal friends aren't ignorant, they just know a bunch of stuff that isn't true!
BTW, Wiki has this tidbit regarding her:
This what I get when I clicked your link:
Stop trolling.
From Marxists to Oligarchs.
I'm just glad the money didn't go to funding any more violence.
Deflect, project and deny. Nothing new today?
If anyone in the BLM leadership has misused funds then they should suffer the consequences. It has nothing to do with whether Black Lives Matter though.
That's just fucking crazy--OF COURSE IT HAS to do with BLM.
SMMFH
What are you going to do, troll your own seed?
How does financial shenanigans effect whether or not black lives matter?
Jesus Christ, do you not know the difference between an organization called BLM and saying black lives matter?
Rhetorical, as you have proven you don't.
Talking about trolling--that would be you with your useless link above and the introduction of communism when it isn't mentioned.
Clearly he does. He just pointed out that regardless of what some groups leaders have done it shouldn't undermine the point of their message, that black lives matter. It seems that here conservatives are jumping all over this because they'd been angered at the movement and the message, and yes, there are no doubt many white right wing conservatives who do not think black lives matter and thus are giddy over this news that seems to vilify the movement, something they've been doing for years now. To them it's a justification of their bitter resentment and attacks over what they clearly see as "uppity" blacks getting in their faces and challenging the status quo of systemic racism that is clearly apparent in societal outcomes.
Your rants about conservatives are getting old and stale.
Follow the conversation better--no one said black lives didn't matter.
No, he really doesn't. He is just doing his normal race card trolling.
The entire BLM organization from the ground up is a fraud. The money is funneled to the top leadership who syphon it off to enrich themselves. The organization isn't sending any message. They are a charity where the money never reaches the victim.
What a load of BS. Does the left get off on being used or something? Because that is what is happening. The BLM organization doesn't believe in their message; they don't live their message; and any money being sent to it is being misused. The left loves to complain about Trump and evangelicals using the right to enrich themselves; well welcome to the left's new religion. Just keep dumping in money and pray real damn hard; and maybe, just maybe, something will happen. When it predictably doesn't; well, it is because not enough money was sent; so increase those donations! Remember they are tax deductible! Or maybe it isn't since there is more than one; and only 1 is registered as a charity.
I am surprised the leaders of BLM don't have their own weekly telecast to their disciples. But I guess that is too much work for them. Why bother putting on a show; when the suckers are already sending in the money.
"It has nothing to do with whether Black Lives Matter though."
That was the point John made. Apparently that was too hard for some to understand, thus the reply:
Clearly that completely missed Johns point. He then had to explain it so that kindergartners could understand it...
"How does financial shenanigans effect whether or not black lives matter?"
You then continued, clearly missing his point, with:
Johns point, from the beginning, was the "misused funds" has "nothing to do with whether Black Lives Matter". I agreed with him. Some right wing conservatives disagree and are using this irrelevant likely financial crime to dismiss and ridicule a movement that encompasses hundreds of thousands if not millions of Americans who recognize that while some say "All Lives Matter!" their actions do not live up to their words.
Nice way to spin things.
Completely wrong, but real nice.
Just more deflection and twisting the facts to fit a narrative. It's clear that many white right wing conservatives were triggered by black Americans standing in unison and denying something those conservatives have never really come to accept, that black lives do matter. That when a little black girl goes missing there should be the same community outreach and local, State and even federal response and coverage, not only when it's the little white pageant winner. That when a young black man gets pulled over by police at night he shouldn't have to be thinking "Keep my hands on the wheel and visible at all times, no sudden movements, have license and insures readily available, do not exit the vehicle, do not duck head down to get something from under your feet or on the floor of the vehicle...". That's not something most young white drivers ever have to think about, they have the assumption of innocence even though black drivers are less likely to be carrying drugs, guns, or other illegal contraband compared to their white peers.
And I want them thrown in prison just like I want these frauds running BLM to be thrown in prison. Just because Trump and evangelicals are using their little bitch sycophants to get rich doesn't mean that some of those folk truly believe in their faith, they just got suckered, they were gullible, but likely very good people at heart who want what's best for their friends and families. I just wish they could extend that to people that don't look like them and may not worship like them.
There is no spin, I quoted John, I quoted you, it was a simple statement John made that was completely misinterpreted by you. Why else would you respond with such nonsense?
There are people here who have a high opinion of their "arguments" without any justification whatsoever.
Do you want to be the pot or the kettle?
Look at who gave your comment a "like".
Choose your friends wisely.
I didn't even know you could do that.
I also didn't realize liking a comment meant anything other than liking a comment.
Maybe he thinks that YOU can actually control who is allowed to like your comments.
SMMFH
How do I choose who “likes” my comments?
By the power invested in me by no one, I hereby give you the power to choose beforehand who is allowed to like your comment!
"There are people here who have a high opinion of their "arguments" without any justification whatsoever."
3.1.14 is a perfect example!
I told my white daughters all that and mentioned don't get wise and think you are a lawyer because you read about what your rights are on the internet.
Is the article about the movement?
Fact check: Missing context in claim about Black Lives Matter co-founder's property purchases
" The claim that Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Khan-Cullors bought four luxury homes is MISSING CONTEXT, because without additional information it could be misleading. While some social media users suggested that the purchases were evidence that Khan-Cullors had been enriched by the movement, our research revealed no evidence that Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation funds were used to purchase property. Khan-Cullors has held several other jobs in addition to her work as the organization’s volunteer executive director, including writing a memoir and developing content for Warner Brothers."
So, "they" spent $12.3M on five houses with monies donated for a cause? What happened to the "cause" - why doe the "cause" need $12.3M in real property??? How does that help the "cause"???
What part of the article did you not read? And, the original cost of the properties was no where near the 6M reported in the original post.
Sez USA Today fact checkers just because they didn't receive a response to their "e-mail"???
Sorry Steve - you know better than to hang your hat on that.
I don't hang my hat on much of anything. But I am interested in looking at, and researching, both sides of any argument.
As to not receiving a response, to me it means the other side had no real evidence, otherwise, why not share it? They could have responded with something like it is proprietary information, but they didn't even do that.
I could also post the snopes article if you wish.
Research, research, research.
That, is the name of the game.
But, the fact is, there was no 6 million dollar home. So right off the bat, the above post is lying.
After reading the links provided, it "appears" that there a lot of questions that have not been answered - such as - how can a person who received ONLY $120,000 since 2013 as earnings can/could afford to purchase four properties worth over $6.2M.
Even the fact checkers seemed uncomfortable about the lack of facts needed.
Your fact checkers were dealing with prior reports for properties purchased, not this particular house.
I thought BLM was against mansions because they were like plantation houses.
They are only against white people owning them. It is very different when they own them.
“when they own them.”
Just who be they? When? Where? How?
Remember any answer is necessarily relevant to this date in time…unless, of course, any answer is used as an excuse for past transgressions.
Read the comments closely, I am sure you will come to know what he is talking about.
"Black Lives Matter Secretly Bought A $6 Million House"
How did an alleged 'movement' buy a house?
First off, it is not an alleged movement, it is a real entity that exists.
Secondly, read the article.
How does a movement buy a house?
From the article you obviously never have read:
A movement doesn't, an organization with the same name can and does. And they seemed to have done it with money meant for the movement. Why would anyone defend an organization called BLM for stealing from the BLM movement to buy a 6 million dollar house?
The question remains, how does a 'movement' buy a house?
As I patiently tried to enlighten you earlier, BLM is an entity--not just some vague "movement" you wish to make it seem.
"Movements" are not tax exempt, but BLM IS!
So this entire 'movement' then is not responsible for the actions of a few then, correct?
Who claimed the "movement' (which is an entity, not just a movement, as has been repeatedly pointed out to you) was responsible?
Now you just sound like another poster, trying to argue shit that isn't claimed.
Black Lives Matter Secretly Bought A $6 Million House
Nice copy of the title.
Now, read the article--the whole thing!
And why can't you answer this simple question of who blamed BLM for the actions of a few?
Like a corporations, movements are people too.