Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors’ brother is paid of the two highest salaries at the organization for being the head of the security team at the $6million BLM Los Angeles mansion bought with charity donations.
The former leader had said previously that her sister, mother, and brother were employed with the Black Lives Matter Foundation. But new financial filings last week revealed Paul Cullors is paid more than dozens of other employees at the severely scrutinized organization.
Although the May 11 filing, first reported by the Washington Examiner, does not reveal the exact amount Paul Cullors is paid yearly, it does state he is one of the two highest-compensated employees.
It is unclear whether Cullors is paid more, less, or the same, as the other highest-paid employee, BLM Operations Director Raymond Howard.
The organization will be required to disclose what employees it paid upwards of $100,000 in its 990 financial disclosure filing.
News that Patrisse Cullors’s brother receives the greatest compensation at BLM comes on the heels of mounting criticism toward the doomed ex-leader of the organization.
‘While my brother is the head of security, and my mom and sister did work at the property, there are also dozens of people who work in the organization that is black folks and are doing amazing work,’ Cullors told the Associated Press last week.
After her resignation in May 2021, it has been revealed that BLM purchased a $6million lavish home in Los Angeles with charitable donations. Patrisse Cullors has also come under fire for receiving a $120,000 payment in ‘consulting fees’ by BLM.
Cullors has repeatedly denied claims that she took money from BLM for personal matters and has reiterated that all the purchases and transactions – including the lavish 6,500 square-foot Studio City property home – were legitimate.
‘The idea that (the foundation) received millions of dollars and then I hid those dollars in my bank account is absolutely false,’ Cullors said, calling those claims ‘a false narrative.’
New financial filings last week revealed Patrisse Cullors’ (pictured) brother, Paul Cullors, is paid more than dozens of other employees at the severely scrutinized organization
Paul Cullors receives one of the two highest salaries at the organization for being the head of the security team at the $6million Los Angeles mansion bought with charity donation
News that Patrisse Cullors’s brother receives the greatest compensation at BLM comes on the heels of mounting criticism toward the doomed ex-leader of the organization
Cullors has repeatedly denied claims that she took money from BLM for personal matters and has reiterated that all the purchases and transactions – including the lavish 6,500 square-foot Studio City property home – were legitimate
Paul Cullors was one of at least three members of Patrisse Cullors’ family employed at BLM. He was also remunerated for providing security services at Cullors’ personal properties, New York Magazine reported.
Tom Anderson, director of the Government Integrity Project at the National Legal and Policy Center watchdog group, told the Examiner the recent reports about Cullors hiring immediate family at BLM while she was on the board are concerning.
‘Reportedly accessed Signal messaging exchanges show Paul Cullors supervises physical security at all of Patrisse’s private residences. That, coupled with this new revelation that Paul is one of the highest-paid employees of Black Lives Matter Global Network, is more proof Patrisse may have crossed the line on self-dealing,’ Anderson told the outlet.
It has also come to light that Patrisse Cullors’s ex-partner Damon Turner’s art company, Trap Heals, was paid $150,000 for a November 2020 livestream of election night.
Meanwhile, Cullors told the Associated Press last week that she was paid $120,000 in ‘consulting fees’ by BLM, and claims she wanted to pay to hire the mansion for her son’s birthday
Speaking to AP, Cullors said she intended to pay a fee to rent the property for her son’s birthday.
Black Lives Matter has since confirmed that it had billed her – but it’s unclear how much for, if she was charged the same rate as anyone else, and if she has since settled up the supposed debt.
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Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors sits for a photo after an interview with The Associated Press in Los Angeles
Records show that Turner’s Los Angeles-based clothing company, Trap Heals, was started just days before partnering with Cullors’ foundation.
The company received an $86,000 donation later that year from a nonprofit run by Cullors – on of several transactions that have raised eyebrows amid the recent scrutiny of the group’s finances.
In the interview, Cullors angrily denied claims BLM brass misused funds, roughly three months after the organization ceased online fundraising following a demand by the California attorney general to show where nearly 100 million in donations received in 2020 went.
Cullors acknowledged that BLM was ill-prepared to handle a tidal wave of contributions in the aftermath of protests over George Floyd´s death at the hands of Minneapolis police in 2020.
She and others offered insights into the growing pains of an organization that went from an idea to a global brand, almost in an instant.
‘On paper, it looks crazy,’ she said. ‘We use this term in our movement a lot, which is we’re building the plane while flying it.
‘I don’t believe in that anymore. The only regret I have with BLM is wishing that we could have paused for one to two years, to just not do any work and just focus on the infrastructure.’
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Cullors now owns three properties in Los Angeles – including this one in the hills above the city. All were purchased in 2020 following the success of the foundation’s fundraising campaign
She also owns the above home, valued at $1.4million, which is located in scenic Topanga Canyon
Recent disclosures that the foundation had paid $6 million for a Los Angeles compound in 2020 unleashed a torrent of criticism and social media chatter.
The property in Studio City – including a home with six bedrooms and bathrooms, a swimming pool, a soundstage and office space – is meant to be both a meeting venue and a campus for Black artists.
Some criticism came from BLM supporters like Justin Hansford, director of the Thurgood Marshall Civil Rights Center at Howard University.
He said the property purchase could be weaponized by movement opponents, leading possible donors to shy away from Black-led social justice organizations: ‘That’s the thing that you don’t want to get out of hand.’
Cullors defended the purchase. ‘We really wanted to make sure that the global network foundation had an asset that wasn’t just financial resources,’ she said, ‘and we understood that not many Black-led organizations have property.’
Cullors said she had made mistakes and even some regrettable choices that haven’t fostered trust. She acknowledged she had used the BLM property twice for personal purposes.
But the 38-year-old bestselling author and artist angrily and adamantly denied accusations that she had personally benefited in the six years she guided the BLM foundation, including media reports that she had purchased homes for herself and members of her family.
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