Indiana AG Sues Black Lives Matter as Part of Donation-Use Investigation

Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita has filed a lawsuit against the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation (BLM), seeking the organization’s compliance in a more extensive investigation into its use of funds donated by Hoosiers.

In a release, Rokita’s office announced it “filed a Petition to Enforce a Civil Investigative Demand, which seeks an order requiring BLM to respond to a Civil Investigative Demand issued to the organization in February 2022.”

The investigation demand aims to learn if BLM was out of compliance with the Indiana Nonprofit Corporation Act or the Indiana Deceptive Consumer Sales Act. It seeks to obtain BLM documents that are pertinent to the “investigation to ensure transparency to donors and guarantee funds donated by Indiana residents are used for their intended purpose and not for the personal benefit of BLM directors.”

Rokita’s office opened the investigation after learning of the alleged misuse of donated funds, he told Fox and Friends Weekend host Will Cain on Sunday.

“In February when we heard this news about allegations of mansion-buying and everything else, a lot of people said ‘hey, we’re going to look into it’ — well, we are, we did and we will continue until we get the cooperation and we get the facts,” he explained. 

He added that BLM’s lack of cooperation with the civil investigative demand led to the lawsuit. 

Rokita published a Washington Examiner article Friday, pointing out that BLM leaders bought a $6 million mansion in southern California in October 2020. He explained that would not “necessarily” be his business as Indiana’s attorney general. 

“But I do make it my business when charitable donors here in my state get scammed. A big part of my job is protecting Hoosier consumers, and I take that responsibility very seriously,” he continued. 

In the press release, Rokita highlighted that the organization reported raising in excess of $90 million in 2020, approximately $21.7 million of which was distributed “to 30 local organizations and affiliated chapters, including an affiliated chapter in South Bend, Indiana,” the release said. “However, an IRS filing by BLM for the first half of 2020 listed the organization had $0 in revenue, expenses, and assets held by BLM for the time period.” 

The attorney general emphasized the importance of protecting Hoosiers and getting to the root of the organization’s “concerning patterns of behavior.”

“Protecting Indiana consumers from this house of cards is critical,” Rokita said in the release. “There are concerning patterns of behavior from this organization, and we will do what it takes — including this lawsuit — to get to the bottom of it.”

In February, Rokita appeared on Fox News Channel’s The Ingraham Angle and emphasized that “a lot of this money is from woke corporations,” Breitbart News reported.

“They get what they deserve,” he added.

The case is Rokita v. Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, INC, No. 49D01-2204-MI-013657, in Superior Court of Marion County, Indiana.