According to campaign finance records, a Los Angeles-based jail reform group named “Reform LA Jails” founded and led by Patrisse Cullors — a co-founder of Black Lives Matter — made payments to multiple figures and organizations linked with Cullors herself — including her own consulting firm, as well as a luxury resort in Malibu.
“Janaya & Patrisse Consulting,” a business Patrisse Cullors owns, received $60,000, according to the records.
The committee name, according to the submitted records for the statement dates of July 1 to September 30, 2019, is “Reform LA Jails, A Committee Supporting Jail Reform and Community Reinvestment, Sponsored by Justice Team Network, A Project of Tides Advocacy.”
In total, the committee listed $903,003.26 in contributions received, $381,822.09 in expenditures, and outstanding debts of $49,540.13.
Of these expenditures, $44,313.74 went to “Bowers Consulting Firm,” whose founder and president, Shalomyah Bowers, appears to be a board member on another non-profit founded by Cullors, “Dignity & Power NOW.”
According to campaign finance records, “Reform LA Jails” also spent nearly $26,000 on “meetings” at a luxury resort in Malibu in 2019.
“The payments were made on behalf of Reform LA Jails by a consulting firm owned by the co-author of Cullors’ 2018 biography, Asha Bandele, campaign finance records show,” reported the Daily Caller, according to the records.
Reform LA Jails spent $10,179 on “meetings and appearances” at the Calamigos Guest Ranch and Beach Club in Malibu, California. $15,593 was spent at the Malibu Conference Center, a “corporate conference facility” owned by the Calamigos resort.
“Guests at the 200-acre resort, where rooms start at $600 a night, have exclusive access to a private five-acre strip of the Malibu coast,” noted the Daily Caller.
According to the Daily Caller, “Reform LA Jails did not return multiple requests for comment,” adding later that “It’s unclear why Reform LA Jails booked meetings at the luxury Malibu beach resort.”
Patrisse Cullors sparked a backlash earlier in April “After reportedly going on a “real-estate buying binge,” purchasing “four homes with a price tag totaling upwards of $3 million.”
Cullors first described herself as a “trained Marxist” in 2015.
“We are trained Marxists. We are super-versed on, sort of, ideological theories. And I think that what we really tried to do is build a movement that could be utilized by many, many black folk,” Cullors told Jared Ball of The Real News Network.
When Marc Lamont Hill questioned Cullors’ apparent hypocrisy, the BLM co-founder responded.
“And, for so many black folks who are able to invest in themselves and their community, they choose to invest in their family, and that’s what I have chosen to do. I have a child, I have a brother that has severe mental illness who I take care of, I support my mother, and I support many other family members of mine.”
Ian Haworth is an Editor and Writer for The Daily Wire. Follow him on Twitter at @ighaworth.
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.