The US Department of Justice is investigating allegations that leaders of the Black Lives Matter Global Network Fund (BLMGNF) defrauded donors who contributed millions of dollars during the 2020 racial justice movement.
For years, critics of the organization have questioned where the nearly $90 million in racial justice donations actually went, with few concrete answers beyond reports that some of its leaders purchased new homes.
Now, federal subpoenas issued by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California in Los Angeles, along with at least one search warrant, have been handed down as part of the inquiry.
While BLMGNF has acknowledged receiving the subpoena, its leadership says the organization is not currently the target of a federal criminal investigation, which is a careful bit of wording.
The investigation itself isn’t criminal (yet); at this stage, it’s simply an inquiry. But if there’s even a hint of wrongdoing, you can bet that a Trump-led Justice Department will be on BLMGNF like white on rice.
Of course, what sparked these concerns was the many calls for public accounting and transparency around how the funds were used.
In 2022, Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors and other leaders faced scrutiny over the purchase of a $6 million home in Southern California that was bought with donations made to the BLMGNF. Of the roughly $90 million raised in 2020, about $30 million had been spent by February of the following year.
The BLMGNF justified the house purchase by stating that it would serve as a Black creative space to support the movement. Nonetheless, leaders of local chapters were justifiably frustrated, as they did not see any of that money being directed toward grassroots organizing or political education.
We still don’t know whether this investigation will lead to anything meaningful. This isn’t the first inquiry of its kind, and it likely won’t be the last.
But if donors learn that their contributions were used to fund the luxurious lifestyles of leaders at the helm of what was supposed to be a community-based movement, it could deal a major blow to future organizing efforts, especially on a national scale. Perception is reality, and in this case, it’s everything.
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