Black Lives Matter files lawsuit against secretive organization over mishandling $33 million

The national Black Lives Matter group is accusing a top left-wing dark money group in court of mismanaging and withholding $33 million of its cash, according to a complaint.

The lawsuit, filed on Monday in California Superior Court in Los Angeles County by the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, claimed that the Tides Foundation “refused to honor its promises and continues to commandeer BLMGNF’s donations.” The Tides Center, an affiliate of the San Francisco-based Tides Foundation that incubates new progressive groups, previously acted as a fiscal sponsor of BLMGNF and is bankrolled by influential Democratic megadonors, including George Soros and Bill Gates, tax forms show.

“Tides has engaged in deceptive business practices and has operated in a quasi-banking capacity without appropriate regulatory oversight or licenses,” lawyers for BLMGNF alleged in the complaint. “This action highlights a critical regulatory discrepancy that allows Tides (a nonprofit entity) to manage assets without adequate safeguards totaling over $1.4 billion — surpassing the assets under management of many regulated community banks, which rigorously adhere to stringent financial safeguards.”

BLMGNF emerged as a key player in the left-wing social justice and defund-the-police movements following the murder of George Floyd, pulling in tens of millions of dollars. The Washington Examiner reported extensively on the charity’s lack of financial transparency and ethical problems, prompting state and federal investigations. The charity and its ex-board secretary, Shalomyah Bowers, were accused in a September 2022 lawsuit by a group called BLM Grassroots of fraudulently siphoning off $10 million from supporters, though the lawsuit was dismissed last year.

BLMGNF co-founder Patrisse Cullors resigned from the group in 2021 after legal scrutiny over her lavish real estate purchases, including a $6 million Los Angeles mansion where Cullors hosted parties.

In the newly filed lawsuit, BLMGNF said the Tides Foundation has refused to transfer it millions of dollars that Tides had pledged to turn over. The Tides Foundation, BLMGNF argued in the complaint, engaged in fraud and funneled BLMGNF’s funds elsewhere instead of to a “collective action fund” intended for BLMGNF.

The Tides Foundation said in a statement that the complaint’s allegations are “completely false.”

“Resources in the Black Lives Matter [collective action fund] were never intended to be granted to large, well-funded national organizations like Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, and were always intended to be granted to local Black Lives Matter chapters,” the group said. “BLMGNF’s lawsuit seeks to circumvent the intent of the Fund’s donors and deprive grassroots Black Lives Matter chapters critical resources, for its own benefit.”

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The lawsuit comes as the Tides Foundation and its affiliates come under fire for funding protests across the United States that are hostile to Israel after it was attacked by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7 of last year.

“There is an expectation for Black Lives Matter to challenge systems, break barriers and uphold the truth, no matter how uncomfortable,” BLMGNF said in a statement. “Today, that extends into nonprofit operations as we call out Tides Foundation and other so-called ‘fiscal sponsors’ who exploit their role.”