BLM Global Network Foundation suspended from donations by Amazon

AP Photo/John Locher

If you’re not familiar with AmazonSmile, it’s a program set up by the online retail giant that allows customers to have a percentage of their purchases donated to the charity of their choice. (We’ve been using it for years to help support a local animal shelter.) Of course, as with most major charitable programs, Amazon requires all recipient groups to meet certain standards of transparency and compliance with applicable laws. One group that has just been suspended from the program is the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation. According to Amazon, BLMGNF has failed to file required documentation disclosing where tens of millions of dollars in donations went over the past few years. I know… you’re all fainting from shock about now, right?

Advertisement

The beleaguered Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation has been kicked off Amazon’s charity platform for its failure to disclose where tens of millions in donations it received nearly two years ago have ended up.

AmazonSmile, which gives a portion of eligible purchases on the online shopping site to charities, said it “had to temporarily suspend” the group today, an Amazon spokesperson told The Post.

“States have rules for nonprofits, and organizations participating in AmazonSmile need to meet those rules,” the spokesperson said. “Unfortunately this organization fell out of compliance with the rules in several states, so we’ve had to temporarily suspend them from the program until they come into compliance.”

The group is also more than a year behind on filing its taxes. In California, where BLMGNF is headquartered, the Attorney General recently warned the organization that its leaders would be held “personally liable” for any delinquency fees or fines.

BLM co-founder Patrisse Khan-Cullors resigned from the organization last May, but she still volunteered a statement regarding the millions of disappearing dollars. She declared that the money came from “white corporation guilt.” She said, “People have to know we didn’t go out and solicit the money. This is money that came from white guilt, white corporation guilt, and they just poured money in.”

Advertisement

If you’ll pardon my saying this, nobody is raising questions about whether or not you actively solicited the donations from any of these corporations. Of course, the very act of filing and registering as a charity and announcing that fact can be considered a solicitation of sorts. But the real question is what you did with the tens of millions of dollars after you received it. Simply saying that people sent you money unsolicited doesn’t relieve you of the requirement to adhere to the applicable laws covering charitable donations.

So where did all of the money go? No one can say for sure at this point, but we do have a few hints. Last year, we learned that BLMGNF previously transferred millions of dollars to M4BJ,
a charity run by the wife of the aforementioned Patrisse Khan-Cullors. The money was used to buy a mansion in Canada which doesn’t appear to have any sort of charitable usage associated with it. As a bonus, the mansion used to be owned by the Communist Party of Canada.

Of course, BLM leaders around the nation can’t seem to keep themselves out of trouble at times. Memphis BLM founder Pamela Moses was recently sentenced to prison for voter fraud. (Though that charge seemed a bit dodgy.) Other examples abound.

How many people (of all races) have been forking over their money to the ambiguous banner of “Black Lives Matter” over the past several years in the belief that they were furthering causes associated with racial justice? Don’t they deserve a refund, or at least an explanation? From the very beginning, local BLM chapters have been complaining that the national group cut them off from financial support and left them high and dry. The donors deserve a full accounting of where their money went because BLMGNF is looking more and more like a scam at this point.

Advertisement

Join the conversation as a VIP Member

Trending on HotAir Videos

Advertisement
Advertisement
Ed Morrissey 8:20 PM | November 08, 2024
Advertisement
John Sexton 5:00 PM | November 08, 2024
Advertisement