A progressive nonprofit that has provided cash to anti-Israel protesters is being sued by the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation for fraud and withholding more than $33 million in donations, bombshell lawsuit says. claims.
A 285-page lawsuit filed in California Superior Court in Los Angeles says the Tides Foundation, which has managed hundreds of millions of dollars in donations to progressive organizations since its founding in 1976, “refuses to keep its promises. , continues to extort BLMGNF’s donations.” Monday, County.
Instead, Tides donated an undisclosed amount to a radical BLM breakaway group run by Melina Abdullah, an anti-police activist who lost a “frivolous” lawsuit against BLMGNF, according to court documents and BLMGNF’s lawyers. revealed.
Tides, a nonprofit organization based in Los Angeles and San Francisco, is serving as the fiscal sponsor. That is, it is a clearinghouse that collects donations for groups that do not have 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status. In addition to BLMGNF and other BLM groups, it also manages donations to pro-Palestinian groups that have supported anti-Israel protests across the country.
Billionaire George Soros and his son Alex Soros funneled about $14 million from the Open Society Foundations into Tides. Tides sponsors the pro-Palestinian Adalah Justice Project and other activist groups that fuel campus protests.
“Tides has engaged in deceptive business practices and operated in a quasi-banking capacity without adequate regulatory oversight of its license,” BLMGNF’s lawsuit states. “Tides operates with a level of autonomy and minimal regulatory oversight, which is completely at odds with the regulatory framework imposed on traditional financial institutions.”
The complaint alleges that Tide has more than $1.4 billion in assets and operates as a bank without any banking regulations.
BLMGNF, a national civil rights organization founded in 2017, has raised tens of millions of dollars in donations since George Floyd’s death in 2020. At the time, the organization did not have tax-exempt status with the IRS, so it approached Tides. The foundation is helping manage the flood of cash.
Tides, which collects a portion of donations to manage the organization’s finances, verbally assured BLMGNF that it would return the funds it collected once it received tax-exempt status, the complaint alleges.
During that time, donations were managed in a “collective action fund” that BLMGNF had access to, according to the complaint.
BLMGNF ended its relationship with Tides in 2022, but Tides refused to hand over cash totaling approximately $33 million, the complaint says.
In return, Tides took between 3 and 9 percent of the donations it processed and sent some of those funds to other organizations. The complaint says BLM groups participated without BLMGNF’s permission.
On June 9, 2022, Tides officials announced that Tides transferred $7.4 million from the common fund to BLMGNF. Instead, he transferred some of the cash ($4.75 million) to a nonpartisan BLM chapter in Oklahoma City, the complaint says.
“It is unclear why such a large amount of funding was awarded to a BLM chapter in a single city,” the complaint states.
A spokesperson for the Tides Foundation said in a statement to the Post on Wednesday that the allegations in the complaint are “completely false.”
“Black Lives Resources Matter” [collective action fund] These were never intended to be given to large, well-funded national organizations like the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, but were always meant to be given to local Black Lives Matter chapters.” the statement said. “BLMGNF’s lawsuit seeks to circumvent the intentions of the fund’s donors and strip grassroots Black Lives Matter chapters of critical resources for their own benefit.”
Although Tides’ website states that it provides “grant management,” BLMGNF’s attorney said in a statement to the Post that Tides does not have access to donations allocated to BLMGNF to splinter groups or local chapters. He said he was not authorized to make a donation.
Tides announced that it has given $12.6 million from its support fund to groups including BLM Grassroots, a breakaway group led by activist Melina Abdullah.
She tried to collect $10 million from BLMGNF in a “frivolous lawsuit” against a breakaway BLM grassroots group. Abdullah, who is running as independent candidate Cornel West’s running mate in the U.S. presidential election, lost her lawsuit last year and was ordered to pay more than $700,000 in legal fees and costs to BLMGNF.
BLMGNF’s lawyers cited a June ruling by a Los Angeles Superior Court judge that dismissed BLM Grassroots’ claims for BLMGNF’s donations.
“This lawsuit against the Tides Foundation is about not just financial discrepancies, but also the principles of due ownership and transparency that should govern partnerships in social justice funding,” attorney Byron McClain said Wednesday. stated.
In a statement to the Post, BLMGNF said it “never expected to become a victim of unscrupulous business practices” in its social justice charity work.
“Black Lives Matter is expected to challenge systems, break down barriers, and stand up for the truth, no matter how uncomfortable it may be,” the statement said. “Today, we are accusing the Tides Foundation and other so-called ‘financial sponsors’ of abusing their role, which extends to non-profit businesses.”
BLMGNF raised $90 million in donations in 2020 alone, but faces its own financial challenges.
The group’s co-founder, Patrice Cullors, has since gone on a multimillion-dollar home buying spree, purchasing two homes in Los Angeles and a property with an airplane hangar and a runway in the Atlanta suburbs. was first revealed by the Post.
Cullors denied using donations to purchase the property. She resigned from BLMGNF a month later in May 2021.
Cullors also signed a $6 million mansion in Los Angeles to be used as BLMGNF’s offices and an $8 million property in Toronto for the group’s Canadian branch.
