Black Lives Matter’s (BLM) lavish donor fund spending was reported years before news broke on Thursday of a federal investigation into potential widespread fraud.
The Daily Caller News Foundation reported in June 2020 that the BLM Global Network (BLMGN) spent millions of dollars on consultants, travel and staff compensation over three years. After nationwide anti-police riots made BLM a household name, the Department of Justice (DOJ) is reviving an investigation into whether the BLM Global Network Foundation (BLMGNF) defrauded donors, The Associated Press reported Thursday.
The federal probe from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California in Los Angeles began under the Biden administration but now has new life under President Donald Trump and the office’s Trump-appointed top prosecutor, Bill Essayli, according to the AP.
Essayli’s office did not respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.
The BLMGNF’s leaders, who previously denied wrongdoing, have reportedly received subpoenas in the probe. “Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation is not a target of any federal criminal investigation,” the group told the DCNF. “We remain committed to full transparency, accountability, and the responsible stewardship of resources dedicated to building a better future for Black communities.”
The DOJ can investigate alleged fraud on a civil or criminal level, though the legal framework for the reported BLM probe is unclear.
Many legacy media outlets ignored financial mismanagement allegations against BLM in 2020, when George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis police custody jump-started the group’s anti-cop agenda. The overlooked news that year included ten BLM chapters accusing the BLMGN of failing to fiscally support them while enriching its own leadership.
That same year, the FBI arrested BLM of Greater Atlanta leader Sir Maejor Page in September on charges of using $200,000 in donations for personal expenses, the DCNF previously reported. He was sentenced to 42 months in prison in October 2024 for wire fraud and money laundering.
Years of financial scandals followed Page’s arrest, with BLMGNF announcing in May 2021 that co-founder Patrisse Cullors was stepping down from the organization after the DCNF exposed her $238,000 payment in services to a company run by the father of her child. The funding raised legal and ethical concerns about self-dealing within BLM, charity experts told the DCNF.
The BLMGNF also shut down its website’s fundraising features in February 2022 after California and Washington State threatened to sue over missing financial records. Two months later, New York Magazine revealed the BLMGNF spent $6 million of its budget on a mansion without disclosing the purchase. BLM officials later faced a fraud lawsuit over the mansion, and although a California judge dismissed it in 2023, the purchase continues to fuel suspicions that the BLM movement effectively scammed its supporters.
Additionally, multiple firms owned by BLM leaders or their family members received lucrative contracts totaling millions of dollars from the BLMGNF between July 2022 and June 2023, the DCNF previously reported. The spending further alarmed experts concerned about whether the foundation was honoring its obligations as a charity.
Five years after the summer of 2020 brought BLM to prominence, a May 2025 poll showed most Americans believe the country’s “increased focus on race” did not accomplish anything meaningful for black people, the DCNF reported. Essayli also criticized BLM in 2020, calling it “anti-police” and “anti-American.”
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