After a damning New York Magazine investigation showed that they had purchased a $6 million property in Southern California with contributed monies, NBCNews reported that leaders of the Black Lives Matter movement are denying charges that they squandered millions of dollars.

Patrisse Cullors, co-founder and former executive director of the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, and Melina Abdullah, co-founder of BLM Los Angeles and co-director of BLM Grassroots, spoke to reporters in a closed roundtable discussion on Monday, dismissing recent articles about the organization's finances as media attacks and "misinformation and disinformation," and claiming that any lack of transparency about the multimillion-dollar property was out of concern for the leaders’ safety.

“Almost immediately upon closing, the attacks on me, and BLM, which also means Melina and others, escalated,” Cullors said, adding that she stayed at the home for four nights while the FBI investigated a death threat against her. “So we did use the campus as a haven, as a safe place. That derailed an announcement strategy. Conditions changed, and that’s it.”