“It appears that the house of cards may be falling,” says Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita of the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, the legal entity that snarfs up most cash donated to the BLM movement. Indeed, “this happens eventually with nearly every scam, scheme or illegal enterprise.”
It’s not just Indiana: The states of Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina and Virginia have all revoked BLMNGF’s charitable registration, while California and Washington are threatening to hold the nonprofit’s officers personally liable for its lack of financial transparency.
The outfit has failed to file taxes for 2020, the year it raised tens of millions after George Floyd’s death at police hands and the rioting and protests that followed. It has no official leader overseeing its $60 million war chest after its co-founder resigned in May.
And that co-founder, Patrisse Cullors-Khan, is tied to several other fundraising organizations whose finances raise “potential red flags,” New York magazine reports. Meanwhile, she’s been on a personal real estate buying spree, while BLM funds transferred to a Canadian nonprofit run by her spouse have gone for other dubious purchases.
Vast giving by deep-pocketed donors linked to Facebook, Twitter and Netflix — as well as by corporations rushing to show the “right” political consciousness — may have funded rank peculation by those entrusted with the funds.
In the end, Black Lives Matter is turning into an oft-told tale: Big piles of cash wrapped in moral fervor invite corruption. And the more the cause is deemed beyond questioning, the faster the scammers move in.