BLM accounting gimmick further delays disclosure of its $60M bankroll

[Leroy N. Soetoro]

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/blm-accounting-gimmick-further-
delays-disclosure-of-its-60m-bankroll

The national organization for Black Lives Matter appears to have used an
unusual accounting maneuver to further delay reporting what became of its
$60 million bankroll from 2020, a move one charity watchdog called "the
worst transparency issue" she has ever seen.

Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, the charity that serves as
the face of the national BLM movement, quietly changed its 12-month
accounting cycle to July through June. By going from a calendar to a
fiscal year, BLM has until mid-May to report what it did with the millions
that flooded into its coffers beginning in the second half of 2020. The
move enabled BLM to report a sparse, short-year Form 990 to the IRS that
covered its activities during only the first half of 2020, when the entity
was entirely dormant as a fiscally sponsored project of the California
charity Thousand Currents. It was also the period just before BLM exploded
as a cause celeb following George Floyd's racially charged death.


"Given the money involved here, this is really unbelievable," CharityWatch
Executive Director Laurie Styron told the Washington Examiner. "To not
know who is in charge of $60+ million collected by the national charity
arm of arguably the most prominent social justice movement in the country
is the worst transparency issue I have seen in my 18 years as a charity
watchdog."

BLACK LIVES MATTER DROPS FROM ACTBLUE FOLLOWING WASHINGTON EXAMINER EXPOSÉ

In July 2020, BLM broke away from Thousand Currents, and by the end of the
year, it had received authorization from the IRS to operate as a charity
effective August 2020.

Thousand Currents dumped $66.5 million directly into BLM's coffers in
October 2020, according to an asset transfer agreement previously reported
by the Washington Examiner, and BLM disclosed to California on Friday that
it began accepting direct contributions in late August 2020. But that
transaction won't appear until BLM files its next 990 form, due by May 15,
2022.

Before BLM provided a copy of its short-year 2020 Form 990 to the
Washington Examiner on Monday, there was no indication that the charity
had changed its accounting year from calendar to fiscal. When BLM
requested a 6-month extension with the IRS to file its 2020 finances, the
group explicitly stated its 2020 tax year ran January through December.

BLM's short-year 2020 Form 990 was signed by BLM board member Shalomyah
Bowers and was dated Nov. 11, 2021. BLM did not return numerous requests
for comment asking when it decided to change its fiscal year and whether
the move was made deliberately to buy itself more time to report its
finances.

"For everyone's sake, I hope that this change in accounting period was not
a strategic move to defer transparency on the status of the $66+ million
the charity received from its fiscal sponsor in the fourth quarter of
2020," Styron said.

"Adequate oversight of the nonprofit sector can't occur if the public
doesn't have access to timely information," Styron added. "In the event
that any of this $66+ million was mismanaged, every day that goes by makes
it less and less likely that any potential mismanagement can be fully
reconciled or corrected. Time is of the essence."

Alan Dye, a Washington, D.C.-based lawyer who specializes in nonprofit
law, told the Washington Examiner that BLM's move to change its fiscal
year was "unusual and irregular," but he added that it "may not be in
violation of IRS rules," which allow for charities to change accounting
period by filing a short-year Form 990.

Black activists have been sounding the alarm for years about BLM's lack of
financial support to local BLM activists while also providing no
acceptable financial transparency surrounding the millions under its
control.

BLM will have to report its five highest compensated independent
contractors who received more than $100,000 between July 1, 2020, and June
30, 2021, when it files its next Form 990.

BLM likely paid a substantial amount in contracting fees in 2020. The
charity reported to the IRS in August 2020, when it applied for tax-exempt
status, that it expected to incur precisely $12,706,366 in "Professional
Fees" expenditures in 2020.

All three key BLM stakeholders that were in control of the charity before
Patrisse Cullors resigned in May 2021 were closely tied to or were in
direct control of consulting firms that claimed to do business with BLM.

The father of Cullors's only child, Damon Turner, runs Trap Heals, a
California-based art company that used to serve as BLM's "lead developer
of the art & cultural efforts," according to business records previously
reported by the Daily Caller. BLM's political action committee paid Trap
Heals nearly $150,000 to co-produce an election night live stream in
November 2020 mired with technical problems that industry experts said
should have cost a fraction of the price to produce.

Cullors owns a consulting firm called Janaya and Patrisse Consulting,
through which she received payments upward of $20,000 a month in 2019 from
Reform LA Jails, a Los Angeles-based jail reform group Cullors used to
lead.

Bowers runs a consulting firm called Bowers Consulting, which lists BLM as
a client on its website. Bowers has served as the treasurer for numerous
organizations run by Cullors, including Reform LA Jails and BLM PAC.
Bowers also listed his Bowers Consulting email address in BLM's most
recent charity registration submitted to New Mexico identified Bowers as
the individual authorized to sign checks on behalf of the charity.

BLM board member Raymond Howard used to state on his LinkedIn account that
he served as finance and operations manager of New Impact Partners, a
Dayton, Ohio-based consulting firm owned by his sister. A website for New
Impact Partners also named BLM as one of its clients, but the reference
was removed from the site in late January after the Washington Examiner
inquired BLM about its relationship with the firm.

Howard also deleted the reference to New Impact Partners from his LinkedIn
account in late January after being contacted by the Washington Examiner
in late January.

BLM'S MILLIONS UNACCOUNTED FOR AFTER LEADERS QUIETLY JUMPED SHIP

As of Tuesday afternoon, BLM is out of compliance in California,
Washington, New Jersey, North Carolina, Connecticut, Colorado, Maryland,
Maine, and Virginia due to its failure to report its 2020 finances. Scott
Walter, the president of the conservative think tank Capital Research
Center, said BLM's move to change its fiscal year change won't likely be
well received by those states.

"This latest discovery about BLMGNF is eyebrow-raising for a group already
in apparent disarray," Walter told the Washington Examiner. "The fiscal
year change will likely heighten the concerns of state attorneys general
who monitor charities and won’t want to wait till May 2022 (the latest
possible filing date under the new fiscal year) to discover what happened
to $60-plus million."

BLM was also out of compliance with New Mexico, but the state reinstated
the charity on Friday and provided it an extension until June 30 to report
its finances after the BLM submitted its short-year Form 990 to the state.

"Our office is closely monitoring until they are in full compliance," said
Jerri Mares, a spokeswoman for the New Mexico Office of the Attorney
General.

It remains unclear who was left in charge of BLM's finances after co-
founder Cullors resigned as the group's executive director in May 2021,
amid scrutiny of her personal real estate purchases.

The two co-directors Cullors appointed to serve in her stead following her
resignation quietly announced in September that they didn't take the job
because of disagreements with BLM.

BLM revealed in its short-year 2020 Form 990 that its books were now in
the care of Elias Law Group, the law firm run by Democratic mega-lawyer
Marc Elias.

BLM also disclosed in a filing submitted Friday to the California attorney
general's office that Minyon Moore, a longtime ally of Hillary and Bill
Clinton, had taken up a position on BLM's board of directors.

It's not clear when BLM's partnerships with Elias Law Group and Moore
began.

https://www.scribd.com/document/559153372/BLM-California-2020-
Registration#download&from_embed


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