Say you’re laundering money, without saying you’re laundering money.
As previously reported, the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation spent approximately $6 million on a lavish Southern Californian mansion using donor cash and then took measures to keep the purchase a secret, according to a report Monday.
In October 2020, two weeks after BLM received a $66.5 million cash infusion from its fiscal sponsor, the group employed a man with close ties to the charity’s co-founder, Patrisse Cullors, to secretly purchase the 7-bedroom residence.
Dyane Pascall, the financial manager for Janaya and Patrisse Consulting — an LLC operated by Cullors and her spouse, Janaya Khan, bought the Studio City mansion in cash to conceal the misuse of the charities’ donations.
Six days later, Pascal transferred the property’s deed to an LLC named after the property’s address, New York Magazine reports.
It turns out, the BLM-linked developer paid $3.1 million for the same mansion just 6 days earlier, the New York Post reported.
The mansion was then purchased by BLM (BLMGNF) for $5.8 million and paid for IN CASH — it was paid to a shell company registered a few days before, the Daily Mail reported.
According to The Post, the $5.8 million sales price is 250% more expensive than other similar homes in the area.
The house was purchased by Dyane Pascall, a real estate developer who worked for Janaya and Patrisse Consulting, a for-profit firm run by BLMGNF co-founder Patrisse Cullors and her partner Janaya Khan.
On October 21, 2020, property records show that Pascall bought the mansion from televangelists Shawn and Cherie Bolz. The sale price for both parcels of land was $3.1 million, Shawn Bolz told The Post Tuesday.
Pascall purchased the property two weeks after the California Attorney General approved a $65 million transfer from Thousand Currents, the charity which collected donations on behalf of BLMGNF. The group has delayed its reporting to the IRS, and not yet disclosed where that money has gone.
Two days after the purchase, on October 23, lawyers for the Democratic law firm Perkins Coie incorporated a limited liability company (LLC) in Delaware named for the mansion’s address. Four days later — on October 27 — the home was transferred to the company for $5.8 million, records show. Property records also show that no transfer taxes were charged. BLMGNF is a tax-exempt charity.
“A review of property assessment records show the value of the mansion BLMGNF purchased skyrocketed while all the neighboring properties saw an average of less than a five percent increase,” said Tom Anderson, director of the Government Integrity Project at the National Legal and Policy Center.
“This raises serious questions concerning the purchase price of the house and the way the transaction was handled through cash and a shadowy LLC,” Anderson said.
Former BLM co-founder Patrisse Cullors said anyone questioning or criticizing this dubious real estate transaction is racist and sexist.
The Daily Mail reported:
A Los Angeles mansion frequented by Marilyn Monroe and Humphrey Bogart was bought by a real estate developer working for BLM founder Patrisse Cullors and her partner for $3.1 million, and then purchased by BLM’s foundation just six days later for $5.8 million in cash, it has emerged.
The rapid price inflation ‘raises serious questions,’ ethics experts said.
The purchase of the 6,500 square-foot, six-bedroom property in Studio City was first revealed on Monday by New York Magazine, amid growing questions about BLM’s finances.
The organization in February 2021 said it had taken in more than $90 million in 2020 and still had $60 million on hand, but it remains unclear how that money is being managed or even where it is.
Cullors, the co-founder of the organization, resigned in May 2021 as director of the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation (BLMGNF), amid scrutiny of her property empire. She has written best-selling books, and has a contract with Warner Brothers to produce content.
On Wednesday, Cullors, 38, angrily hit back at the questions over cash purchase of the Studio City mansion, describing the criticism as ‘racist and sexist’.
She insisted that the expansive property was bought as a ‘safe space’ for black creatives, activists and thought leaders, and its purchase was never disclosed because it needed renovating.
Patrisse Cullors resigned from her BLM leadership position last May amid backlash that she purchased 4 homes for $3.2 million.