Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation (BLMGNF) leaders are being criticized after the group allegedly purchased a $6 million mansion with funds donated to the organization.
The property was purchased two weeks after the foundation received a $66.5 million donation from a fiscal sponsor.
New York Magazine reports that the accused leaders posted a video on YouTube filmed at the property, which has since become unavailable.
BLM leadership had made the video to commemorate the first anniversary of George Floyd’s death. An archived copy of the video on YouTube reportedly shows foundation leaders Patrisse Cullors, Alicia Garza, and Melina Abdullah as they discussed their activism and its difficulties.
The mansion is 6,500 square feet, boasting several bedrooms, bathrooms, and fireplaces, as well as a garage that holds more than twenty vehicles, a pool, and a soundstage.
It was purchased in October 2020 by Dyane Pascall, the fiscal manager for an LLC created by Cullors. Approximately one week later, the law firm Perkins Cole transferred ownership of the mansion to an LLC located in Delaware.
Two months after Pascall purchased the property, the IRS granted BLMGNF tax-exempt status. Tax-exempt status requires an organization to disclose funds donated and expenditures of that money; however, the organization failed to do so in 2020 and 2021.
Shalomyah Bowers, a BLMGNF board member, told New York Magazine in an email on April 1 that the organization had “always planned” to disclose the mansion’s purchase publicly. She added that acquiring property via a private LLC is a common way to protect assets from litigation and liability in real estate.
Bowers claimed the house is not a personal residence and was intended “to serve as housing and studio space for recipients of the Black Joy Creators Fellowship.”
She explained that creatives who receive the fellowship were given “recording resources and dedicated space” at the mansion “to launch content online and in real life focused on abolition, healing justice, urban agriculture and food justice, pop culture, activism, and politics.” The fellowship, which had not been announced at the time of Bowers’ email, was revealed to the public the following day.
Though the property is listed as a place to make content for BLM, Vibe mentions it has not been solely used for this purpose, and according to New York Magazine, reportedly, very little content has been created.
“It’s a waste of resources,” activist Tory Russell told New York Magazine.
BLMGNF also owns other pieces of property. BLM Canada purchased a mansion in 2021 that it planned to use to build a community center for the black population in Toronto.
Fox News reports that two leaders from BLM in Toronto quit shortly thereafter, citing the mishandling of finances.
“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,” they wrote in their resignation letter. “We were told that concerns about financial transparency and community accountability were rumours, ‘not a big deal,’ and whispers from so-called ‘counter-organizers.'”
