From DailyMail.co.uk…
Newly released tax filings revealed how Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors used charity funds to pay her friends and family large sums for various ‘consulting’ services, as well as charter a private flight.
The documents reveal 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.’
The co-founder’s brother, Paul Cullors, received more than $840,000 for providing security services to the foundation.
Leaders have attempted to justify the expense by saying the foundation’s protection could not be entrusted to former police professionals who typically run security firms because the BLM movement is known for vehemently protesting law enforcement organizations.
A consulting firm run by Shalomyah Bowers, who is BLM’s board secretary and has previously served as deputy executive director, was paid more than $2.1 million for providing the organization with operational support, including staffing, fundraising and other key services.
Cullors resigned from BLM last year amid a wave of scrutiny surrounding the charity’s finances.
She has repeatedly denied claims that she took money from BLM for personal matters and has reiterated that all the purchases and transactions – including a lavish $6million home in Los Angeles, dubbed Studio City – were legitimate.
The new filing also revealed that Cullors reimbursed BLM $73,523 for a charter flight for foundation-related travel, which the organization says she took in 2021 out of concern for COVID-19 and security threats.
She paid the foundation an additional $390 over her uses of the 6,500 square-foot Studio City property for two private events.
The latest financial disclosures come after Cullors had already come under fire for receiving a $120,000 payment – ‘consulting fees’ – by BLM.
The former BLM leader did admit previously that her sister, mother, and brother were employed with the organization.
The revelations come courtesy of a 63-page Form 990, the annual filing required for organizations to maintain tax-exempt status as a nonprofit.
This is the BLM foundation’s first public accounting of its finances since incorporating in 2017. As a fledgling nonprofit, it had been under the fiscal sponsorship of a well-established charity, and wasn’t required to publicly disclose its financials until it became an independent, 501(c)(3) nonprofit in December 2020.
In its latest 990, the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation Inc. revealed that it ended the last fiscal year – from July 1, 2020 to June 30, 2021 – with nearly $42million in net assets. The foundation had an operating budget of about $4million, according to a board member.
Nearly $6million was spent on the Studio City property, which includes a home with six bedrooms and bathrooms, a swimming pool, a soundstage and office space, was intended as a campus for a black artists fellowship and is currently used for that purpose, the board member said.
The foundation invested $32million in stocks from the $90million it received as donations amid racial justice protests in 2020.
The investment is expected to become an endowment to ensure the foundation’s work continues in the future, organizers say.
But still, after spending more than $37million on grants, real estate, consultants and other expenses, the BLM movement is still worth tens of millions of dollars.
