Indiana’s Attorney General has sued Black Lives Matter over its use of donations after the group refused to reveal who controls its $60million war chest.
Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita yesterday filed a lawsuit against BLM’s Global Network Foundation to find out where state residents’ donations have gone.
‘I filed a lawsuit against the Black Lives Matter organization to protect Hoosiers (any resident or person born in Indiana) from this house of cards,’ Rokita tweeted.
‘BLM has concerning patterns of behavior & we’ll do what it takes to get to the bottom of it on behalf of generous Hoosiers who have donated to them.’
On Thursday, Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita filed a lawsuit against activist group Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation
‘I filed a lawsuit against the Black Lives Matter organization to protect Hoosiers (any resident or person born in Indiana) from this house of cards,’ Rokita tweeted
Garza, Cullors and Tometi (left to right) co-founded the group, but Garza and Tometi left, leaving Cullors in charge as executive director
The suit is demanding the organization respond to investigative demands filed in February.
‘The Office of the Attorney General 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 attorney general’s office said in a release.
The AG’s suit is some of the most aggressive action taken against BLM after concerns over the group’s finances have swirled for years.
In February 2022, the group stopped online fundraising following a demand by the California attorney general to show where millions in donations received in 2020 went.
It said the ‘shutdown’ was short term while any ‘issues related to state fundraising compliance’ were addressed.
The group’s co-founder, Patrisse Cullors, had stepped down as executive director of the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation in May 2021 amid scrutiny of $3 million in real estate that she owned.
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She demanded people ‘understand the enormous pressure and fear that comes with living under the constant threat of white supremacist terror and real threats on my life.’
The Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation famously grew into one of the largest international movements against racial injustice in mid-2020 but has now come under intense scrutiny over its finances
Black Lives Matter secretly used $6 million in donations to buy luxurious 6,500-square foot mansion with seven bedrooms and parking for 20 cars in Southern California in 2020
The home features six bedrooms and a pool in the back. BLM claimed the home was bought to provide a safe house for ‘black creativity’ but had allegedly tried to hide the home’s existence
After the purchase of a multi-million dollar mansion was fully exposed earlier this month in an article by New York Magazine, Cullors fired back in a lengthy Instagram post of her own, denouncing saying it was both a ‘racist and sexist attack’ on the organization.
The property was bought for almost $6million in cash in October 2020 with funds that had been donated to BLMGNF (Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation), the magazine reported.
‘That fact that a reputable publication would allow a reporter, with a proven and very public bias against me and other Black leaders, to write a piece filled with misinformation, innuendo and incendiary opinions, is disheartening and unacceptable,’ she stated.
Cullors called the report ‘a despicable abuse of a platform that’s intended to provide truthful information to the public.’
BLM attempted to justify the purchase of the mansion by saying it was made to encourage ‘Black creativity’ with the property ‘a space for Black folks to share their gifts with the world and hone their crafts as we see it.’
Dyane Pascall, president of the Conscious Capital Investment Enterprise real estate company and a former employ of Cullors, bought the LA property from televangelists Shawn and Cherie Bolz in 2016, according to property records.
The purchase came days after BLMGNF received an injection of $66.5 million in donations that had flooded in from around the globe after the murder of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis policeman.
The organization allegedly hoped to keep the house’s existence a secret – despite three of its former leaders reportedly filming a series of videos dining and drinking champagne outside the estate last spring, New York Magazine reported.
Documents and internal communications reportedly reveal the luxury property was handled in ways that ‘blur boundaries’ between charitable use and those that would benefit some of the organization’s leaders – including Cullors, who shared video in June of her enjoying a ritzy brunch outside the estate with fellow officials Alicia Garza and Melina Abdullah, who have both since left the organization.
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