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Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita has launched a lawsuit against the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation (BLM) as part of his office’s investigation into the organization’s use of money donated by residents of his state.
In a press release, the AG’s office stated it “filed a Petition to Enforce a Civil Investigative Demand, which seeks an order requiring BLM to respond to a Civil Investigative Demand issued to the organization in February 2022.”
The investigation seeks to determine whether BLM was out of compliance with the Indiana Nonprofit Corporation Act or the Indiana Deceptive Consumer Sales Act, and aims to obtain BLM documents that are pertinent to the “investigation to ensure transparency to donors and guarantee funds donated by Indiana residents are used for their intended purpose and not for the personal benefit of BLM directors.”
The investigation began after Rokita’s office learned of the alleged misuse of donated funds. On Sunday, he told Fox and Friends Weekend host Will Cain:
In February when we heard this news about allegations of mansion-buying and everything else, a lot of people said ‘hey, we’re going to look into it’ — well, we are, we did and we will continue until we get the cooperation and we get the facts.
He added that the lawsuit was born out of BLM’s lack of cooperation with the civil investigative demand.
On Friday, Rokita published a Washington Examiner article noting that BLM leaders bought a $6 million mansion in southern California in October 2020.
While Rokita noted that the mansion purchase would not “necessarily” be his business as Indiana’s attorney general, he declared:
But I do make it my business when charitable donors here in my state get scammed. A big part of my job is protecting Hoosier consumers, and I take that responsibility very seriously.
He noted in his press release that the organization reported raising in excess of $90 million in 2020, approximately $21.7 million of which was distributed “to 30 local organizations and affiliated chapters, including an affiliated chapter in South Bend, Indiana.”
“However, an IRS filing by BLM for the first half of 2020 listed the organization had $0 in revenue, expenses, and assets held by BLM for the time period,” the release noted.
“Protecting Indiana consumers from this house of cards is critical,” Rokita stated. “There are concerning patterns of behavior from this organization, and we will do what it takes — including this lawsuit — to get to the bottom of it.”
BLM in Canada is also facing internal divisions over questionable use of funds there. Specifically, Canadian activists are angered over the purchase of a mansion in Toronto that was once the headquarters of the Communist Party of Canada.
“For BLM Canada to take money from BLM Global Network [Foundation] for a building without consulting the community was unethical,” Canadian BLM activists Sarah Jama and Sahra Soudi said in a statement. “For BLM Canada to refuse to answer questions from young Black organizers goes against the spirit of movement-building.”
According to real estate records obtained by the Washington Examiner, BLM Canada, which also goes by M4BJ, purchased the property for $8.1 million on July 13, 2021. The purchase came just weeks after the group’s co-founder, Patrisse Cullors, resigned amid scrutiny of her own personal real estate purchases across the U.S.
For example, Cullors purchased a 3.2-acre property in Georgia that boasts a private airplane hangar, a runway for small planes, and an indoor swimming pool; a property in the Bahamas at an ultra-exclusive resort where Justin Timberlake and Tiger Woods both have homes; and a 2,370-square-foot, $1.4 million property in Topanga Canyon, California.
Cullors resigned last May. Her wife, Janaya Khan, who considers herself “gender nonconforming,” also serves as a director of BLM Canada, according to the group’s Canadian charity registration.
As The New American’s Cort Kirkwood detailed, Cullors also funneled BLM money to a company owned by her child’s father.
BLM saw a major infusion of cash following the death of George Floyd. The organization revealed it received $90 million in donations from individuals and big corporations in 2020 in the aftermath of Floyd’s death, and claimed to have ended the year with $60 million on hand.
But are progressive donors getting any return on their investment? Or is BLM effectively a racket for its top brass to enrich themselves?
