![BLM co-founder Patrisse Cullors speaks about the trauma of reporting financial disclosures [Twitter Screenshot Andrew Kerr]](https://images.dailycaller.com/image/width=960,height=411,fit=cover,f=auto/https://cdn01.dailycaller.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Screen-Shot-2022-04-13-at-11.13.46-AM-e1649863093738.png "BLM co-founder Patrisse Cullors speaks about the trauma of reporting financial disclosures [Twitter Screenshot Andrew Kerr]")
The Black Lives Matter (BLM) co-founder accused of using funds from the organization to buy a mega-mansion said Friday that financial disclosure laws endanger and trigger activists like herself.
Patrisse Cullors said while speaking at an event at Vashon Center for the Arts that anytime she hears about IRS Form 990, which requires charities to disclose their financial activities, she gets triggered.
“It is such a trip now to hear the term ‘990,’” Cullors said. “I’m, like, ugh. It’s, like, triggering.”
“I actually did not know what 990s were before all of this happened,” Cullors said, appearing to reference a January report from the Washington Examiner that exposed BLM’s lack of financial transparency which ultimately led several states, like California, to stop the charity from fundraising until it could show what it did with the $60 million raised in 2020.
“This doesn’t seem safe for us, this 990 structure — this nonprofit system structure,” Cullors said. “This is, like, deeply unsafe. This is being literally weaponized against us, against the people we work with.”
Cullors: “This doesn’t seem safe for us, this 990 structure — this nonprofit system structure. This is, like, deeply unsafe. This is being literally weaponized against us, against the people we work with.” pic.twitter.com/xQnCY4S2pw
— Andrew Kerr (@AndrewKerrNC) April 13, 2022
Cullors said several activists have expressed fear to her that they will be hounded with requests from outlets about their 990 forms, which charities are required to disclose upon public request. (RELATED: BLM Co-Founder Lashes Out At ‘Racist’ Media For Exposing $6 Million Mansion)
“People’s morale in an organization is so important,” she continued. “But if their organization and the people in it are being attacked and scrutinized at everything they do, that leads to deep burnout. That leads to deep, like, resistance and trauma.”
The BLM Global Network Foundation (BLMGNF) spent $6 million of the charity’s money on a massive Southern California mansion in October 2020, New York Magazine reported. Dyane Pascall, the financial manager of an LLC run by Cullors and her spouse, purchased the mansion and transferred ownership to a Delaware-based LLC, preventing public knowledge of the foundation’s ownership, according to the report. The BLMGNF allegedly tried to keep the purchase a secret.
An internal memo from the organization obtained by New York Magazine listed possible reasons for owning the house, such as a studio for producing content and a safe house for leaders with security concerns.
Cullors stepped down as the organization’s executive director in 2021 after the Daily Caller News Foundation (DCNF) reported she used her position as the charity’s leader to funnel business to an art company led by the father of her only child.