Sharing the wealth? Black Lives Matter hosts dinner and dance for dozens of grieving families at ‘controversial’ $6M LA compound group secretly bought BEFORE its finances came under fire

Black Lives Matter hosted a meal for dozens of families affected by police brutality at the organization’s controversial $6 million compound in Los Angeles.

The dinner, with more than 150 guests, included some who had previously accused the network of using the names of their loved ones to rake in tens of millions of dollars.

The Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation Inc faced allegations of financial mismanagement after purchasing the property with money raised in the wake of the 2020 racial justice protests.

The 6,500-square-foot mansion in Southern California was purchased by BLM for $5.8 million on October 27, 2020, despite the fact that the seller, Dyane Pascall, had purchased it for $3.1 million just six days earlier.

The fall dinner and dance appears to be one of the few uses that have been made since the purchase of the six-bedroom luxury property, which has its own pool, soundstage, multiple fireplaces, ‘mud house’ and ‘butler’s pantry’.

BLM also reportedly wanted to keep the house purchase secret, despite three of its former leaders reportedly recording a series of videos in the spring of 2021 of them dining and drinking champagne outside the estate.

Documents and internal communications reportedly reveal that the luxury property was handled in a way that blurs the lines between charitable uses and those that would benefit some of the organization’s leaders, New York magazine reported.

The discrepancy between BLM’s purchase price and Pascall’s purchase price also appears to remain unexplained.

Beatrice X Johnson, co-founder of Families United 4 Justice Network, who attended the dinner, was a skeptic.

Johnson’s cousin Oscar Grant was fatally shot in 2009 while being held on a transit station platform in Oakland, California.

“There has been a lot of controversy surrounding this place, even among families,” she said.

She added: “The families wanted to see this place. That’s a no-brainer. And who else would be invited to dinner other than the families affected by the police?”

“It was landscaped, it was beautiful, it was welcoming,” she said of the recent dinner.

Organizers told the Associated Press that the house, which sits on three-quarters of an acre of land, will be officially called the “Creator’s House” and will remain a sanctuary for grieving loved ones killed in incidents of police brutality.

It will also continue to serve as a campus for the foundation’s Black Artists Fellowship.

“Personally, I call it a home for freedom because it is the place where the gifts and talents of Black people can be nurtured to flourish,” said Shalomyah Bowers, board member of the BLM Foundation.

‘Here we kept our activists and organizers safe. It is where we plan and organize beyond the boundaries of white supremacy. And it is where healing happens,” he added.

While defending the purchase of the property, Bowers told the Associated Press: “The critics and the naysayers would have you believe that we have done something inappropriate by creating this safe haven and this safe place where black people can dream again .

“But really it’s just a reminder of the double standards that exist in society for black people,” he explained.

Adding: “When white organizations purchase real estate, it is seen as a wise and safe investment to achieve your mission.

“When black foundations do that, it is ill-informed and unwise.”

“To be here, knowing that someone cares about these families and that the families are not left behind, is a very, very good feeling,” said Yolanda Price, whose stepson Jeffrey Price Jr. was killed in 2018 in an accident involving a Metropolitan Police Department. vehicle in the country’s capital.

“It lets people know they won’t be left behind,” she added.

Questions about the price of the property cast further doubt on the transparency of BLM’s financial situation.

The reported rapid price inflation “raises serious questions,” ethics experts said at the time.

The organization said in February 2021 that it had raised more than $90 million in 2020 and still had $60 million on hand, but it remains unclear how that money is managed or even where it is.

Cullors, the organization’s co-founder, resigned as director of the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation (BLMGNF) in May 2021 amid investigations into her property empire.

She has written best-selling books and is signed with Warner Brothers to produce content.

Meanwhile, just 33 percent of Black Lives Matter’s $90 million donations collected found their way to charities, according to a shocking report released this summer.

The group distributed approximately $30 million between 2020 and 2022, during which time it raised $90 million in donations while promoting itself as the preeminent civil rights organization in the US.

Among the benefactors of BLM’s meager donations were friends and family of co-founder Patrisse Cullors, particularly her graffiti artist brother Paul, who received $1.7 million in salaries and contracts during that period.

Cullors’ brother served on the BLM board and received a salary of just under $140,000, while his company, Black Ties Security, received more than $750,000 from the group for “security services,” the New York Post reported.

A year earlier, his company, Cullors Security LLC, received $841,000 for services.

In 2021, he paid $637,000 for a house in suburban Los Angeles.

Among the causes the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, based in Oakland, contributed to were pro-black and transgender causes, as well as anti-police efforts, according to the Post’s report. The newspaper said the total amount donated was $30,498,722.

Of that $30.4 million, $4.5 million went to nonprofits run by known BLM supporters and employees. Despite the huge donations, BLM posted a loss of $8.5 million for 2021.