Marxist Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors announced on Thursday that she is stepping down from the organization, which comes as she and the organization have faced widespread criticism over violent riots that broke out across the U.S. last year, the group’s extreme ideas, and controversy over Cullors’ lavish lifestyle.
Cullors claimed that criticism from detractors did not factor into her decision to resign, adding, “Those were right-wing attacks that tried to discredit my character, and I don’t operate off of what the right thinks about me.”
Controversy over Cullors’ lavish lifestyle erupted following a report from the New York Post in early April:
As protests broke out across the country in the name of Black Lives Matter, the group’s co-founder went on a real estate buying binge, snagging four high-end homes for $3.2 million in the US alone, according to property records.
Patrisse Khan-Cullors, 37, also eyed property in the Bahamas at an ultra-exclusive resort where Justin Timberlake and Tiger Woods both have homes, The Post has learned. Luxury apartments and townhouses at the beachfront Albany resort outside Nassau are priced between $5 million and $20 million, according to a local agent.
The Post noted that Hawk Newsome, the head of Black Lives Matter Greater New York City, which is not affiliated with Khan-Cullors’ Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, responded to the story by calling for “an independent investigation” into the organization.
“If you go around calling yourself a socialist, you have to ask how much of her own personal money is going to charitable causes,” he said. “It’s really sad because it makes people doubt the validity of the movement and overlook the fact that it’s the people that carry this movement.”
The website for the consulting firm that Cullors owned and operated went offline shortly after news broke about her home buying spree.
Daily Caller investigative reporter Andrew Kerr highlighted how an L.A.-based jail reform group led by Cullors paid Cullors “in upwards of $20,000 a month” in 2019 and spent tens of thousands of dollars for “meetings” at a luxury Malibu beach resort.
Kerr added the following upon the news of Cullors’ resignation:
Cullors’ abrupt departure from the charity, which serves as the national arm of the BLM movement, came three weeks after the Daily Caller News Foundation reported that she had used her position as the charity’s leader to funnel business to an art company led by the father of her only child. Charity experts said BLM’s arrangement with the art company, Trap Heals, amounts to self-dealing and raises ethical and legal questions. …
BLM PAC paid Trap Heals $148,000 in November to co-produce an election night live stream event on her personal YouTube channel that, according to industry experts, should have cost a fraction of that price to produce, the DCNF previously reported.
The BLM PAC live stream was so poorly produced and riddled with so many technical issues that a conservative watchdog group told the DCNF it is considering filing a complaint with the Federal Election Commission over the “excessive payments.”
This article has been expanded after publication to include additional information.
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Source: Dailywire
