Records Show BLM Co-Founder Patrisse Cullors’ Jail Reform Campaign Gave $60k To Her Consultancy, Thousands More For Friends And Luxury Malibu Resort

According to campaign finance records, a Los Angeles-based jail reform group named “Reform LA Jails” founded and led by Patrisse Cullors — a co-founder of Black Lives Matter — made payments to multiple figures and organizations linked with Cullors herself — including her own consulting firm, as well as a luxury resort in Malibu.

“Janaya & Patrisse Consulting,” a business Patrisse Cullors owns, received $60,000, according to the records.  

The committee name, according to the submitted records for the statement dates of July 1 to September 30, 2019, is “Reform LA Jails, A Committee Supporting Jail Reform and Community Reinvestment, Sponsored by Justice Team Network, A Project of Tides Advocacy.”

In total, the committee listed $903,003.26 in contributions received, $381,822.09 in expenditures, and outstanding debts of $49,540.13.

Of these expenditures, $44,313.74 went to “Bowers Consulting Firm,” whose founder and president, Shalomyah Bowers, appears to be a board member on Cullors’ consultancy, “Dignity & Power NOW.”

According to campaign finance records, “Reform LA Jails” also spent nearly $26,000 on “meetings” at a luxury resort in Malibu in 2019.

“The payments were made on behalf of Reform LA Jails by a consulting firm owned by the co-author of Cullors’ 2018 biography, Asha Bandele, campaign finance records show,” reported the Daily Caller, according to the records.

Reform LA Jails spent $10,179 on “meetings and appearances” at the Calamigos Guest Ranch and Beach Club in Malibu, California. $15,593 was spent at the Malibu Conference Center, a “corporate conference facility” owned by the Calamigos resort.

“Guests at the 200-acre resort, where rooms start at $600 a night, have exclusive access to a private five-acre strip of the Malibu coast,” noted the Daily Caller.

According to the records, the payments were made on behalf of Reform LA Jails by a consulting firm owned by Asha Bandele. Bandele is reportedly a “longtime mentor” of Cullors, as well as co-author of her 2018 biography, “When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir.”

The records show that “Carol Bullard, Asha Bandele Inc.” also received $74,664.67 from Reform LA Jails. It’s unclear whether part of this was reimbursement for the “meetings and appearances” payments.

Patrisse Cullors sparked a backlash earlier in April “After reportedly going on a “real-estate buying binge,” purchasing “four homes with a price tag totaling upwards of $3 million.”

Cullors first described herself as a “trained Marxist” in 2015.

“We are trained Marxists. We are super-versed on, sort of, ideological theories. And I think that what we really tried to do is build a movement that could be utilized by many, many black folk,” Cullors told Jared Ball of The Real News Network.

When Marc Lamont Hill questioned Cullors’ apparent hypocrisy, the BLM co-founder responded.

“And, for so many black folks who are able to invest in themselves and their community, they choose to invest in their family, and that’s what I have chosen to do. I have a child, I have a brother that has severe mental illness who I take care of, I support my mother, and I support many other family members of mine.”

Ian Haworth is an Editor and Writer for The Daily Wire. Follow him on Twitter at @ighaworth.

The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

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