‘Protection money’ to bro

A co-founder of Black Lives Matter used more than $800,000 in donations to pay her brother for “security services” for the charity even though he seems to mostly work as a graffiti artist.

Patrisse Cullors, the cofounder of Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, paid a company controlled by Paul Cullors $840,993 in fiscal 2020, according to the group’s federal tax filings, which cover the period from July 1, 2020, to June 20, 2021.

It’s the first time BLMGNF has filed with the IRS since receiving more than $66 million in donations in October 2020.

In July 2020, Paul Cullors, a self-taught graffiti artist, founded the security company Cullors Protection LLC, which received the cash for “professional security services,” the filings show. Around the same time, he was one of two “visiting artists” at an LA art collective called Crenshaw Dairy Mart, founded by his sister.

In December 2020, Paul Cullors purchased a home for $637,006, according to public records. The three-bedroom, two-bath bungalow sits on a quiet cul-de-sac in northern LA. There is no storefront or business headquarters for Cullors Protection LLC; the company is registered and operated at Paul Cullors’ home, and it’s unclear if it has any employees besides himself.

Paul is the eldest of Patrisse Cullors’ three siblings. He has worked as a graffiti artist since 1991, according to a video posted on the Crenshaw Dairy Mart’s website. The art collective was co-founded by Patrisse in 2019 with a mission to “shift . . . the trauma-induced conditions of poverty and economic injustice,” according to the site. Isabel Vincent and Marjorie Hernandez