Black Lives Matter Secretly Bought Luxury Mansion with $6 Million in Donations
Black Lives Matter leadership allegedly purchased a $6 million luxury mansion with cash in Southern California using donation money, according to a report from New York Magazine.
Black Lives Matter (BLM) leaders apparently wanted to keep the purchase of the 6,500-square-foot mansion secret, according to documents, emails, and communications regarding the acquisition.
The mansion, however, was occasionally used for creating online content for the radical, often violent, Marxist movement.
The revelation comes as the group faces federal scrutiny over misuse of funds.
In one now-private YouTube video, Black Lives Matter leaders Patrisse Cullors, Alicia Garza, and Melina Abdullah can be seen sipping champagne on the patio of the mansion to mark the first anniversary of the death of George Floyd — the incident that gave new life to the extremist organization.
Patrisse Cullors participates in the “Finding Justice” panel during the BET presentation at the Television Critics Association Winter Press Tour at The Langham Huntington on Monday, Feb. 11, 2019, in Pasadena, CA. (Photo by Willy Sanjuan/Invision/AP)
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.”
New York Magazine noted Cullors was likely referring to the New York Post article detailing another luxury house purchase scandal of which she was at the center. She allegedly spent nearly $3 million on four homes. Several days after the patio video, Cullors resigned as executive director of Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation (BLMGNF).
“I think they’ve attempted to cancel us, but they have not been successful in canceling us,” Abdullah added. “They’ve attempted to say — and I’m just gonna say it — ‘She bought some damn houses. We gonna cancel her.’”
Attacking critics, Abdullah said, “Who the fuck are you? You ain’t done shit.”
Garza also defended Cullors, saying, “Y’all don’t know shit about what it takes to live in a box here.”
But the Black Lives Matter luxury mansion is no “box.”
According to New York Magazine, the mansion has “more than half a dozen bedrooms and bathrooms, several fireplaces, a soundstage, a pool and bungalow, and parking for more than 20 cars.”
Documents reveal intentions for the house were in conflict, with some messages saying the house was to be used as a “safe house” for leaders whose lives had been threatened, while others said it was a staging ground for social media influencers to create content and spread the organization’s message.
Woman of the Year 2016 and Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Khan-Cullors poses during Glamour Celebrates 2017 Women Of The Year Live Summit at Brooklyn Museum on November 13, 2017, in New York City. (Photo by Ilya S. Savenok/Getty Images for Glamour)
An April 1 email shows BLMGNF board member Shalomyah Bowers intending for the mansion to “serve as housing and studio space for recipients of the Black Joy Creators Fellowship,” which apparently “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.”
The mansion was purchased by Dyane Pascall in 2020 after the organization received a massive inflow of $66.5 after the death of George Floyd. Pascall is the financial manager of the Cullors’ and her husband’s LLC, Janaya and Patrisse Consulting, as well as the chief financial officer of Trap Heals, a nonprofit run by the father of Cullors’ child, Damon Turner.
After the purchase, ownership of the Southern California mansion was transferred to an LLC in Delaware, which was established by left-wing law firm Perkins Coie — home of high-profile Democrat election lawyer Marc Elias. This move allowed for Black Lives Matter to keep secret the true owner of the mansion, according to New York Magazine.
The outlet also noted conversations in a chat called “BLM Security Hub” on the secure messaging platform Signal in which there appears to be “intermingling” of several different entities — something that some nonprofit experts say could “jeopardize the charity’s tax-exempt status.”
The group message contains BLMGNF as well as companies Bowers Consulting, Janaya and Patrisse Consulting, among others. Apparently, Cullors’ brother, Paul Cullors, was the “head of physical security” for the BLM mansion and other properties his sister had purchased with private funds. Cullors’ mother and sister also appear involved with the BLM property.
Two months after the mansion was purchased, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) granted BLMGNF tax-exempt status. Such a status requires the organization to disclose certain financial information — forms that have not been submitted for 2020 or 2021.
After a February 2022 delinquency notice from California’s attorney general, BLMGNF retained the services of Elias himself.
More messages in the Signal channel show plans by the organization to monitor social media for negative mentions and “members using their influence with the platforms to have such remarks removed,” according to the outlet.
Melina Abdullah from Black Lives Matter addresses the crowd during a demonstration to ask for the removal of District Attorney Jackie Lacey in front of the Hall of Justice, in Los Angeles, California, on June 17, 2020. (Photo by VALERIE MACON/AFP via Getty Images)
“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,’” New York Magazine author Sean Campbell noted. “At other points, Bowers and his associates direct a private investigator to look into BLMGNF detractors and journalists, including me.”
Breccan F. Thies is a reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow him on Twitter @BreccanFThies.
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