In yet another “getting what I voted for” moment for likely elated MAGA voters, President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice (DOJ) is reportedly launching an investigation into whether Black Lives Matter (BLM) leaders and personalities engaged in fraud during the 2020 riots, apparently alleging that they defrauded donors who contributed tens of millions of dollars over the period.As a reminder, BLM rose back to the fore over the course of 2020, in the wake of George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis, and
raked in tens of millions of dollars in donations from donors, including leading celebrities, massive corporations, and leftist billionaires, with donating to the group being a major form of virtue signaling over the period.
The official organization that brought in the lion’s share of those donations was the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, Inc., which was by far the most successful of the various groups calling themselves some variation of the BLM moniker. Now it is being investigated for fraud, as the Associated Press reported.
According to that AP report on the matter, the federal law officials involved with the matter have both served one search warrant and issued a slew of subpoenas so far in relation to their investigation of the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, Inc., and a number of other like organizations involved in the 2020 grift.
The AP went on to add that it is currently unclear if the investigation into BLM-connected fraud will result in criminal charges of the leaders, such as group co-founder Patrisse Cullors, but the investigation itself has reignited public scrutiny of the near-total lack of public accounting and transparency over how the BLM groups spent the money they garnered from gullible donors.
Particularly, the BLM Global Network Foundation brought in, according to its own public admissions, a massive $90 million in donations in the wake of Floyd’s death. It then was not forthcoming about how it spent the money it brought in, and in 2022 critics of the organization made hay out of the fact that it had bought a $6 million home in Los Angeles. The home featured six bedrooms, six baths, a huge swimming pool, and like luxuries. Cullors admitted to hosting private parties at the house.
The foundation, for its part, told the AP in a statement that it “is not a target of any federal criminal investigation”, though that could just mean that the criminal part of the investigation has not yet begun. In any case, they continued, “We remain committed to full transparency, accountability, and the responsible stewardship of resources dedicated to building a better future for Black communities.”
It added, “Page continued to collect donations to his purported social justice charity through the organization’s Facebook page even after its tax-exempt status was revoked for failure to submit IRS Form 990 for three consecutive years. He regularly posted content to Facebook about social and racial issues to give his nonprofit the appearance of legitimacy, despite no longer being tax-exempt. He also used Facebook to message privately with users, and he falsely represented that their donations would be used to “fight for George Floyd” and the “movement.” As a result, approximately 18,000 people donated to the BLM of Greater Atlanta charity through its Facebook account, which Page administered.”
The DOJ further noted, “Page used the donations to BLM for his own personal benefit. He purchased entertainment, hotel rooms, clothing, firearms, and a property that he intended to use as his personal residence. He attempted to conceal the purchase of the property by using the name “Hi Frequency Ohio” and asked the seller to sign a nondisclosure agreement that would have prevented the seller from listing Page as the actual buyer.”
