In the past decade, there have been a startling number of individuals and organizations who went from being darlings of corporate media and elites to subjects of criminal investigations.
Such is the case with both Theranos and the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation (the legal and financial entity behind BLM). Both Theranos and BLM made promises they couldn’t keep— one breakthrough rapid blood tests, and the other a vague and incoherent vision of racial equality.
In February 2021, the BLM Foundation reported it had around $60 million in funds, most of which it collected in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death. It is unclear who is directing these funds, or at least the “charity’s” two board members won’t say… But the foundation’s financial negligence has finally put it in legal jeopardy.
This month, California, Indiana, and the state of Washington ordered BLM to “immediately cease” all fundraising. The California Department of Justice has also threatened to hold the founders of BLM personally liable for all missing financial records. Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita called the foundation a “scam” whose “house of cards may be falling.” But wait, there’s more! Not only do we have sketchy financials, but also big-name backers, shell corporations, suspiciously spent funds, and, of course, fraud. Does this sound like anyone you know?
Yes, that’s right: Theranos and Elizabeth Holmes.
Just like Theranos, BLM had a list of high-profile funders. Countless corporations and charities somehow felt the need to donate millions to an organization that justified organized riots and mass looting in 2020. Instead of contributing money to schools, scholarship funds, or other programs, many institutions chose an organization with no concrete goals other than being a “rallying cry for all Black lives striving for liberation.” The BLM Global Network Foundation is the center of a network of 16 regional and local chapters. However, unlike even Theranos, it’s not apparent who exactly the BLM Foundation’s other major funders were. Dozens of major organizations promised donations to BLM in 2020, but precisely where the “movement” ends and the foundation begins is quite ambiguous.
What we do know is that there’s a complex web of entities that label themselves to be part of, or controlled by, the BLM Global Network Foundation. Guess who else used shell companies and affiliated entities to mislead people? That’s correct, a certain crazy-eyed, black turtleneck-wearing Stanford dropout did!
Like Theranos, people close to the matter repeatedly raised concerns about the BLM Foundation's lack of honesty. Several regional chapters of BLM spoke out against their legal and financial representative, the BLM Global Network Foundation. Last June, the father of Michael Brown, whose death sparked BLM, released a statement entitled Tell No Lies, slamming the foundation’s leadership and lack of transparency. These concerns were unfortunately ignored for the past year— even as BLM co-founder and executive director Patrisse Cullors stepped down last May, leaving no one in control of the foundation (and its funds).
Cullors resigned after going on a multi-million dollar spending spree with her self-described Marxist wife, Janaya Khan. This power couple is truly the Elizabeth Homles and Sunny Balwani (Theranos COO and Holmes’s former lover) of the movement for racial justice. Both couples had a strong affinity for luxury goods paid for on someone else’s dime… Cullors’ and Khan’s shopping spree included a $1.4 million property near Malibu and a fourth home in Georgia (complete with an air hangar and 2,500 ft-long runway). They’d also been spotted searching for an exclusive Bahamian beach abode next to the properties of Justin Timberlake and Tiger Woods.
It was recently revealed the BLM foundation transferred millions into a Canadian charity run by Khan. Shortly after, this “non-profit” bought the $6.3 million former headquarters of the Canadian Communist Party. Meanwhile, Cullors profited from a contract with Warner Brothers and lucrative book deals.
She has yet to address the situation and is instead promoting her new book: An Abolitionist’s Handbook: 12 Steps to Change Yourself and the World. Elizabeth Holmes also had visions of changing the world, famously saying “first they think you’re crazy, then they fight you, and then all of a sudden you change the world.” No, sometimes they think you’re crazy, then you defraud people, and then all of a sudden you’ve been indicted by a grand jury. At least one BLM co-founder is already incarcerated. Cullors’ felonious colleague, Pamela Moses, was recently sentenced to 6 years behind bars for voter fraud. We finally know why prison abolition was so popular amongst the BLM founders: it might be the only way to keep them out of jail.
So how will this charade end? Perhaps we’ll get images of a soon-to-be-arrested Cullors and Khan riding off in a Lamborghini decorated with a “DASKPTL” (a reference to Marx’s magnum opus) vanity plate, as did Sunny Balwani. Maybe Holmes and Cullors will even be cellies in federal prison! They can play spades and discuss their respective abilities to make millions playing the race-card and the woman-card.
Ultimately, BLM’s boogeyman of “white supremacy” was about as real as Theranos’s blood tests— both were spacey and disorderly ploys, simply designed to swindle. And swindle they did, but only for a time. Now that each has been exposed, let’s hope that the women who perpetrated the fraud of the Black Lives Matter Foundation will face the same justice as Elizabeth Holmes. They certainly cost the country a lot of money, goodwill, tears, and yes, blood.