The Department of Justice (DOJ) has launched an investigation into whether organizations that are part of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement defrauded donors who gave them $90 million as riots erupted across the U.S. in the summer of 2020, the Associated Press first reported.
The investigation wants to know how Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, Inc. (BLMGF) and other allied groups handled the surge of donations it received during the mid-2020 riots that broke out following the death of George Floyd on May 25, 2020, anonymous sources familiar with the probe told multiple outlets. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California is reportedly leading the investigation.
Federal officials have already served at least one warrant and issued multiple subpoenas as part of the probe into the BLM groups, the AP reported, citing the anonymous sources.
The investigation originally began when former President Joe Biden was in the White House but was recently revisited under the Trump administration, anonymous sources told the AP.
It remains unclear if the probe will lead to any criminal charges, and none have been filed thus far.
BLMGF made headlines in April 2022 after New York Magazine reported that the group quietly used $6 million of its charity funds to buy a 6,500 square foot seven-bedroom California mansion in late 2020. The publication contacted BLMGF for comment days earlier. The organization reportedly circulated an internal memo that brainstormed how to “kill the story.”
The flagship BLM organization had $42 million in assets — less than half of the money it raised in 2020 — The New York Times reported in May 2022, almost exactly two years to the day of Floyd’s death.
On the “About” page of its website, BLMGF says it envisions “a future fully divested from police, prisons, and all punishment paradigms and which invests in justice, joy, and culture.”
The nationwide BLM riots in the summer of 2020 caused more than $1 billion in damage. Two dozen deaths were linked to the riots in just over two months following Floyd’s death.
The DOJ did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
(Featured Image Media Credit: Flickr/Chad Davis)
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