BLM Spent $6M Of Donation Funds On Studio City Mansion: Report

LOS ANGELES, CA — During the same year that George Floyd was murdered, leaders of the Black Lives Matter movement quietly purchased a $6 million luxury home in Southern California using funds donated to the organization, New York magazine's Intelligencer reported.

Read more from Itelligencer: Black Lives Matter Secretly Bought a $6 Million House

Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation — which is an organization that was built off of the movement itself — has raised more than $90 million in donations. It reportedly made the $6 million all cash splurge on the Studio City home just five months after Floyd's death. His murder ignited a tidal wave of activism and crowded protests across the country despite the threat and height of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020.

The home in question was reportedly purchased secretly and in a different name. But a BLMGNF spokeswoman did eventually confirm this month that the organization owns the state.

The group responded to Intelligencer's report on Twitter on April 4: "RT to spread the word: we are redefining what it means to be an activist in this generation with our new Fellowship and Creator House."

The "Campus" as its called by members, is a sprawling 6,500-square foot estate with six bedrooms, multiple fireplaces, a soundstage, a pool and separate bungalow. There's also parking for more than 20 cars, according to real estate listings.

On April 1, Shalomyah Bowers, a BLMGNF spokesperson told Intelligencer that Campus was purchased "with the intention for it to serve as housing and studio space for recipients of the Black Joy Creators Fellowship."

Last year, BLM leaders Patrisse Cullors, Alicia Garza, and Melina Abdullah were seen sitting around a table in front of the multi-million dollar mansion in Los Angeles as they recorded a YouTube video to mark the first anniversary of Floyd's murder. As the women discussed disparities faced by in stewarding racial justice work, the house behind them went unacknowledged.

Collurs had previously faced scrutiny for purchasing four homes for nearly $3 million during her time with BLM. The stature of her real estate portfolio revealed troubling disparities between the funds enjoyed by BLM's most prominent faces and activists with boots on the ground across the nation, Dirt reported.

In the video recorded last spring, Collurs addressed the backlash she received for those purchases, characterizing reporting from media as "right-wing media disinformation and harassment," adding that she was "in survival mode," according to the video posted last spring.

She resigned a few days after that video was released.

In another point during the video, Abdullah said: "They've attempted to say — and I'm just gonna say it — 'She bought some damn houses. We gonna cancel her,"' with Garza adding "Y'all don't know [expletive] about what it takes to live in a box here."