The most high-profile Black Lives Matter group in the nation spent almost a quarter of its donations in 2020 on consultants and lawyers, DailyMail.com can reveal.
The Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation (BLMGNF) submitted a statement of its revenue and expenses for the year while applying for tax-exempt, nonprofit status in August 2020.
IRS documents obtained by DailyMail.com show the group blew $12.7million out of the $60million in donations it received following the outcry over George Floyd’s death on ‘professional fees.’
The costs refer to accountants, lawyers, consultants, and contractors utilized by the organization, which includes the high-powered law firm Hillary Clinton retained for her 2016 presidential campaign – where attorneys bill $750 an hour.
The foundation also planned to spend the same amount on professional fees in 2021, the documents, exclusively obtained by DailyMail.com, show.
The figures come amid heightened scrutiny of the foundation, which famously grew into one of the largest international movements against racial injustice in mid-2020 and is now facing calls for financial transparency.
The leaders of the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation (BLMGNF) could be held personally liable if they fail to disclose financial records about the charity’s $60million in donations within the next 60 days (Pictured left to right: Co-founders Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi who are no longer involved with the organization)
BLM, which famously grew into one of the largest international movements against racial injustice in mid 2020, is now facing calls for transparency regarding the millions of dollars it received in donations
Earlier this month, the California Department of Justice threatened to hold BLMGNF’s leaders personally accountable if they did not hand over information about its finances for the 2020 tax year.
The foundation was officially registered as a charity in December 2020, but it has not provided its latest tax return, and the 2019 filing includes a non-existent address.
In a financial report released in February 2021, BLMGNF confirmed it took in $90million throughout 2020, distributed grants to its partner organizations, and had $60million remaining in its accounts.
But charity auditors have since raised the alarm on BLMGNF’s management of funds after it emerged that it hasn’t had anyone in charge of its finances since co-founder Patrisse Cullors resigned last year.
It is not clear who is currently in charge of the activist group after all three of its founding members – Cullors, Alicia Garza and Opal Tometi – left the organization.
Cullors – who was the only remaining co-founder and director – resigned last May when it emerged that she had spent $3.2million on a personal property empire.
The disclosure will add to the calls for greater transparency about BLMGNF as without a full accounting of how it spends its money, donors would never know what their donations are going towards.
BLMGNF filed IRS documents requesting to become a nonprofit in 2020 when millions of dollars in donations began pouring in after the police killing of George Floyd.
The paperwork was filed on August 28, 2020 and using IRS Form 1023, which organizations are required to submit when they want nonprofit status.
Documents obtained by DailyMail.com show BLM applied for tax-exempt status in August 2020 and were recognized as a nonprofit months later in December
The exemption, however, means BLMGNF will be subjected to regulatory oversight and be required to file Form 990 every year
There are few figures on the documents, but under financial data it states that the foundation had received $60million in donations by that point – they would later say the total haul for the year was $90million.
Under ‘professional fees’ it lists $12,706,366 for 2020 and predicted a similar sum, $12.7million, for 2021.
According to the IRS guidelines for the form: ‘Professional fees are amounts charged by individuals and entities that aren’t your employees.
‘They include fees for professional fundraisers, accounting services, legal counsel, consulting services, contract management, or any independent contractors.’
It is unclear if questions over the expenditure is holding up the filing of paperwork by BLMGNF with the California Attorney General, which regulates nonprofits.
In a letter issued to the organization on January 31, the California Department of Justice said BLMGNF was in delinquent status ‘for failing to submit required annual report(s)’.
‘An organization that is delinquent, suspended or revoked is not in good standing and is prohibited from engaging in conduct for which registration is required, including soliciting or disbursing charitable funds,’ the letter reads.
The DOJ requested a copy of BLM’s annual registration renewal fee report and its 2020 IRS tax forms within two months time.
Under ‘professional fees’ in the organization’s IRS Form 1023, BLMGNF listed $12,706,366 for 2020 and predicted a similar sum, $12.7million, on such costs for 2021
According to the Washington Examiner, which reported the story, the letter states that BLMGNF is prohibited from ‘soliciting or disbursing’ charitable funds until it submits paperwork for the 2020 year.
The letter says: ‘Directors, trustees, officers and return preparers responsible for failure to timely file the above-described report(s) are personally liable for payment of all penalties, interest and other costs incurred to restore exempt status’.
Tory Russell, an activist from St Louis, Missouri, and co-founder of the International Black Freedom Alliance, was sharply critical of BLMGNF for spending so much on expenses.
Earlier this month it was reported BLMGNF hasn’t had anyone in charge of its finances since co-founder and director Patrisse Cullors (pictured) resigned last May
He and Mike Brown Sr, the father of Mike Brown, the black 18-year-old who was shot dead in Ferguson, Missouri in 2014 by a white police officer and sparked a wave of protests around the US, said in March that they wanted to ‘hold the foundation accountable.’
Speaking to DailyMail.com, Russell said the $12.7million BLMGNF spent on lawyers and consultants was over the top.
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‘It’s the nonprofit industrial complex on steroids,’ he said, comparing it to the military industrial complex and the alliance between a country’s military and the defense industry that supplies it with weapons.
‘It’s a white supremacist model of doing movement work,’ he claimed. Lawyers and consultants hired by BLMGNF were ‘really NGO people inserted into the black power movement.’
He also does not buy the argument that Washington insiders were needed to achieve influence on a national scale.
‘You’re not the beast going to conquer another beast. You’re the parasite riding the beast,’ he said.
‘They would not be able to have a conversation if they did not lie and say they’re the people in the streets doing the protests and doing the marches.’
The IRS documents show that the power of attorney for BLMGNF lies with Ezra Reese and Sarah Mahmood, lawyers with Washington law firm Perkins Coie, where senior attorneys bill $750 an hour and up according to legal filings in one case from 2019.
Perkins Coie is the official counsel for the Democratic National Committee and represented Hillary Clinton in her failed 2016 presidential election.
Marc Elias, a Perkins Coie lawyer, retained research company Fusion GPS to start the research that led to the notorious dossier of claims against Donald Trump.
In a letter issued to BLM Monday, the California Department of Justice also accused the charity of failing to submit its annual financial reports and alleged it was in delinquent status
Reese served as general counsel for Pete for America, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg’s presidential campaign, and Democratic political action committee, Priorities USA.
On the IRS forms, Cullors is listed as the director of BLMGNF and Christman Bowers is named as the deputy executive director.
Bowers, who also goes by the name Shalomyah Bowers, runs Bowers Consulting and is a former Obama campaign staffer who has been close to Cullors for some time.
Divisions in the BLM movement erupted in November 2020 when ten local chapters severed ties with BLMGNF and published an open letter to the organization saying there was ‘no acceptable internal process of accountability.’
Parents of black children and teens killed by police, including the mother of Tamir Rice and the father of Michael Brown, tore into Cullors and other foundation leaders for not giving money to grassroots organizers.
The foundation released an ‘Impact Report’ last February which showed that by the end of 2020 they had received $90million in donations.
BLMGNF said at the time that they were sharing the details in a bid to be more transparent – admitting that their structure and finances had previously been opaque.
The report claimed that $21.7million in grants had been disbursed to more than 33 organizations and 23 per cent of its total money had been given away, compared to a nonprofit industry average of five to eight per cent.
But that claim was disputed by the second letter from the 11 BLM chapters which said that ‘not all of these funds have even been disbursed.’
The letter also accused the foundation of ‘hoarding resources from our communities’ and said that it was ‘operating in ways that replicated the harm and exploitation of the nonprofit industrial complex’.
Then two months later, in April 2021, reports began emerging – provided by the National Legal and Policy Center – which showed Cullors had amassed a $3.2 million property empire.
Cullors owned four properties – three in the Los Angeles area and one outside of Atlanta – the researchers found.
Co-founder of the Greater New York chapter of Black Lives Matter Hawk Newsome, who has been a vocal critic of the organization’s national branch, called for more transparency regarding BLMGNF’s finances
Protesters demonstrate on June 2, 2020, during a Black Lives Matter protest in New York City
Many within BLM turned against Cullors, questioning where she had accumulated the money. Cullors has written two books, has a deal with YouTube, and signed a production deal with Warner Bros. in 2020 to develop programming ‘for children, young adults and families.’
However, amid the furor she stood down and announced that two people were taking over as executive directors – Makani Themba and Monifa Bandele.
Yet Themba and Bandele in September said that they had never taken up the roles, following disagreements with leadership.
Hawk Newsome, the head of Black Lives Matter Greater New York City who has been a vocal critic of the organization’s official national arm, said he wanted more transparency for BLMGNF.
‘I just want people to have faith in the BLM movement and that’s what transparency does,’ he told DailyMail.com.
He claimed that the foundation had even accused him of being a ‘GOP operative’ because he ran his chapter independently and didn’t ask them for any money.
Newsome said that his chapter had arguably had a bigger impact than BLMGNF because it had achieved real gains like overturning qualified immunity for police officers in New York.
‘It’s bulls**t,’ he said. ‘I’ve been arrested more than 10 times in the past few years and I was arrested for fighting with Trump supporters.
‘BLM Greater New York is for the streets and these people are in offices criticizing us? It’s ridiculous’.
BLMGNF did not respond to requests for comment, nor did Perkins Coie.
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