BLM: where did the money go? We'll never know. (Black Lives Matter)

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although the foundation is registered he says he has yet to launch any programs instead he says he puts money into other charities i'm actually proud of what we do i'm not ashamed of it buzzfeed claims many of the recent donations came from benevity a site that connects large corporations like google and apple ii charities tonight a disclaimer was placed on the black lives matter foundation donation page saying it had no association with blm in their filing for the year 2017 they're showing only 89 000 in total spending only 24 000 on executive compensation so salaries for the people who run this organization and the only name you can find of someone receiving a salary is robert ray barnes google as much as you'd like if you look around for robert ray barnes and black lives matter about the only information you can find is that he is the person whose name is on their tax form 990. he's not someone we can find political lectures on youtube from how is it possible for a multi-million dollar organization so prominently featured in the news on a daily basis in the year 2020 to remain fundamentally mysterious both about what it does and what it's trying to do and gofundme sent us this statement saying in part 180 campaigns have recently raised money for the black lives matter foundation raising 350 thousand dollars gofundme placed all funds on hold and we are working with paypal and the campaign organizers to ensure all of the money raised is transferred to the black lives matter movement via their fiscal sponsor we did reach out to the black lives matter movement here in los angeles but have yet to hear back as for the black lives matter foundation when it comes to taxes the latest return we could find was in 2017 the foundation brought in just under 300 thousand dollars barnes was the only employee to get paid just over 20 thousand dollars but our whole goal is to find a way to bring the community and the police together so that we can live in harmony with the police although the foundation is registered he says he has yet to launch any programs he has yet to launch any program how is it possible for a multi-million dollar organization to remain fundamentally mysterious both about what it does and what it's trying to do now i'm putting the emphasis on point two there all social movements are aspirational in nature and most charity fundraising is aspirational nature i think it's completely fine morally ethically politically to come out and ask for donations and ask for support and try to sell t-shirts with your logo on it when all you have to sell is the idea of making the world a better place that's what many of us have to do it is a little bit strange that in the year 2020 black lives matter wants to sell you a t-shirt with their logo on it for thirty dollars when they received a headline grabbing donation of 100 million dollars in 2016. robert ray barnes is the founder of the black lives matter foundation in santa clarita not associated with the black lives matter movement and therein lies the confusion tonight a buzzfeed article claims in the wake of racial protests donors mistakenly raised more than 4 million dollars for the local non-profit thinking it was going back to the black lives matter global network the worldwide movement that aims to end police brutality i've seen articles that says that i've raised 4.3 million dollars where you know i have never had anything close to that the buzzfeed article does say the bulk of that money raised was frozen before it could be dispersed nevertheless barnes says he is never associated with black lives matter global network i've never heard one word from anybody from black lives matter but he says he has received donations for his foundation although he would not disclose the amount i don't know whether they're doing it to support what i was doing or not how do i know i've been around since 2015. full disclosure when i received my first payment from youtube for just one thousand dollars i decided to spend it giving my viewers t-shirts for free i printed t-shirts with my channel's logo and i asked them just to pay shipping and handling i literally showed them the receipt from the post office for exactly how much shipping and handling was to send the t-shirt to them wherever they were i gave away t-shirts for free when i had earned just one thousand dollars if you have received 100 million dollars i think many of your supporters would be in a position to ask where are the free t-shirts or at least couldn't this t-shirt be 15.99 instead of 30 this may seem shallow but it's really quite profound organizations like peta people for the ethical treatment of animals they began in pursuit of a definite set of objectives but then with the passage of time the pursuit of self-promotion the pursuit of news coverage the promotions such as selling t-shirts took over more and more of what the organization did to the extent that no matter how many millions of dollars they have it seems that peta is in the business of absolutely nothing other than nothing more than promoting peta whether that be news appearances t-shirts or what have you in record time and with a remarkably big budget something similar happens to black lives matter in the united states and it's a shame because to disclose my own bias i do think there's a really important message to be communicated here i do think there's a really important idea for a movement that could have existed but already now in 2020 we have to look back at the last four years and say where did all that money go where did the budget go and where did all that potential go the pent up passion and interest and engagement of millions of people throughout the country and around the world and now looking ahead we have to ask with all due skepticism what is supposed to happen next well we've now got the mugshot of the one-time leader of a group called black lives matter of greater atlanta sir major page whose real name is tyree conyers page is accused of defrauding hundreds of people who donated to the organization now gofundme is stepping in to help those donors get their money back the crowdfunding website tells 11 alive more than 13 thousand dollars was raised on their platform for the organization a spokesperson says anyone who wants a refund can request one page is banned from using the site in the future fbi agents raided page's home in toledo ohio on friday he's accused of using more than two hundred thousand dollars in donations from the black lives matter of greater atlanta organization we're talking to pay for things like food entertainment furniture and tailored suits for himself the fbi says he told donors their money would be going to causes related to social justice and the george floyd case so the first thing i would advise people to do is understand what part of the black lives matter movement you're donating to there are so many different funds set up right now so just ensure that your money is going where you intended to go is it going to a bail time is it going to a victim relief fund are you donating for policy reform or change there's just a lot of different elements and so that's the first piece of research that we think is really important you know we see in times like this it's always so frustrating uh the the scammers and people with bad intentions who would try and take advantage of people who are looking to help and contribute is there anything in particular that pops up to you as a red flag if someone's soliciting donations or if you see certain things that maybe that's not the best organization to contribute to yeah we do see scammers trying to take advantage of donations during this time the main thing people want to look for is transparency on the charity website is there some sort of document or report or filing that shows their costs the percentage of donations and that goes to operational overhead versus boots on the ground you're looking for that financial transparency when you're donating because some of the black lives matter movement um charities are not 50c 3s bbb can't accredit them has nothing to do with the legitimacy of the charity it's just not a 5063 which is within our policy but apart from what actually is being done with the money apart from the question of where the money went it's even more peculiar to try to puzzle out what was the cause that anyone was donating money to four years ago and what cause now does this organization represent four years ago they had a manifesto on their website and i made a youtube video here discussing point by point what that manifesto said and what it left unsaid and criticizing it i think in a fair and open-ended way saying look this is not the way to define your organization this is not the way to write a constitution explaining what it is you're going to do and what you're not going to do and warning that this would lead to real problems in the future for the organization today that manifesto has been deleted from their own website not just the page was uploaded to the time there is no trace of that manifesto for black lives matter there is no definition no constitution there is no text anywhere on the website that defines for you who they are what they're doing where your money will go what it is even that they're trying to accomplish now the organization has existed for enough years that you can judge them by their past accomplishments by what they have done to some extent however they define themselves as a leaderless organization that does not attempt to control or direct the black lives matter movement there is this vague sense in which black lives matter as an organization is given credit for the outcomes in these situations when there are protests or when there is a lawsuit and the lawsuit is even successful in favor of the black people who are slain by police and i can't just say it's not clear to me that the organization did anything at all on the contrary what i've said to you is even investigating this hoping to find something i can give the organization credit for i wish i could come here on camera and say to you they don't just sell t-shirts they don't just paint their logo on race cars nascar they don't just do this kind of promotion that they really are out there doing important things in these court cases or even in these protests but i have to tell you i haven't seen a single example where there's something tangible that they're doing with again more than 133 million dollars of of charitable support a seemingly bottomless budget an unbelievable level of sincere public interest and enthusiasm a lot of people looking to this this organization for leadership and hope and they themselves say in response to this again again what they say is they don't provide leadership they're not leading organization rather than using the word leaderless they they have this cute word leaderful we're a leader for we let everyone lead themselves and as bad as the constitution of the movement was that i made a youtube video about more than three years ago discussing as bad as their constitution was as bad as the old definitions were at least that provided some definition of who these people were and what they're trying to accomplish i understand the aesthetic appeal of claiming to be a horizontal organization a decentralized organization and a cephalos organization a leader lizard i i understand the egalitarian appeal of just saying well anyone anywhere can take a permanent marker and a piece of cardboard and write black lives matter on it and they're somehow participating in and are part of this movement but guess what ultimately there is a bank account that this money is being paid into all right when somebody pays thirty dollars for that t-shirt it's not the case that a few pennies go to each person or each chapter around the world you know ultimately there is a question of personal responsibility financially and there's a question of leadership in terms of the unbelievable lost potential looking back at the last four years and now we really have to ask ourselves about the lost potential in the next four years maybe we can we can practice