Inside the $6M mansion BLM reportedly bought with donated funds
A previous version of this story said that a Los Angeles property owned by Black Lives Matter had been bought by a real-estate developer for $3.1 million and transferred that same year for $5.8 million. The Post has since learned that the public records it consulted listed the sale price incorrectly. Further research found that other records show that the real-estate developer bought it for the same amount that he transferred it to BLM — $5.8 million. The Post regrets the error.
The sprawling $6 million mansion bought by Black Lives Matter in Los Angeles once hosted Humphrey Bogart and Marilyn Monroe as house guests — and comes complete with a sound stage, music studio, pool and a two-bedroom guest house.
The 7,400-square-foot Studio City compound is a 1930s “farm house” that also boasts seven bedrooms and seven bathrooms, according to the real estate listing.
“Impressively renovated back to the 1930s with all the modern conveniences!” the listing said. “Marilyn Monroe and Humphrey Bogart were a few A-listers who stayed as guests in this estate.”
The swanky digs also has a custom-made wrought-iron staircase, marble-lined bathrooms, three fireplaces — including one imported from Italy — recessed lighting fixtures, digital cameras and thermostats, as well as a private yard with an elaborate play-set and a chicken coop.
The stunning mansion was secretly bought by a shell company in Oct. 2020 connected to the embattled Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, which used part of its $90 million donation windfall to purchase the property as a “campus” for the organization, New York Magazine reported Monday.
Property records reviewed by The Post on Tuesday show the home was sold to Dyane Pascall, a Los Angeles-based real estate developer who works in the nonprofit sector, in a deal that closed Oct. 27, 2020.
The seller at the time, televangelist Shawn Bolz, confirmed the sale to The Post.
Three days after the purchase, records show that the property was transferred to a Delaware limited liability company — named after the home’s address and representing BLMGNF — for $5.8 million. No transfer tax was recorded because the LLC was representing the nonprofit, which is tax-exempt. The LLC is registered under a Washington, DC office for the law firm Perkins Coie, which had set up the complex web of BLMNGF’s related entities in 2016.
Just before closing day, Bolz posted a video to his Twitter in which he spoke about being “passionate” about BLM, and how he was trying to convince more conservative members of his church to embrace the group’s civil rights cause.
“The black community has been mistreated,” said Bolz, the author of books like “Translating God” and “God Secrets,” in the 17-minute YouTube video.
He told The Post on Tuesday, “I really believe in their cause.”
The National Legal and Policy Center, a government watchdog, blasted the purchase of a luxury mansion by the nonprofit, and its lack of transparency.
The watchdog, which filed a complaint against BLMNGNF to the IRS last year, said it would also file an amended complaint to the California Attorney General following the revelations of the Studio City property purchase.
The mansion served as the backdrop in a YouTube video recorded last June by three BLM leaders — Patrisse Cullors, Alicia Garza and Melina Abdullah — who marked the first anniversary of George Floyd’s murder.
“It’s because we’re powerful, because we are winning,” Cullors said of what she characterized as right-wing media attacks in the now-private video. “It’s because we are threatening the establishment, we’re threatening white supremacy.”
Months earlier, The Post reported exclusively in April 2021 that Cullors, a co-founder of BLMGNF, had scooped up four high-end US homes for $3.2 million, including three in the Los Angeles area and another outside Atlanta, complete with an airplane hangar. Cullors sold the Atlanta property months after The Post’s report in July 2021, according to public records. She resigned from the organization in May 2021.
BLM says the property was acquired in the “furtherance of BLM’s mission,” as well as for other uses, BLMGNF board member Shalomyah Bowers told The Post in a statement Monday.
The home is intended to serve as “housing and studio space” for recipients of the Black Joy Creators Fellowship, Bowers said.
“The organization always planned to disclose the property on the upcoming 990 due May 15th as part of BLMGNF’s ongoing transparency efforts,” Bowers’ statement continued. “BLMGNF has and continues to utilize the space for programming and leadership off-sites. The property does not serve as a personal residence.”
