Thousands of people mistakenly donated millions to the Black Lives Matter Foundation thinking it was associated with the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, Inc., which is organizing the movement and helping lead the recent police brutality protests, a new report from BuzzFeed News revealed.

Reporters with BuzzFeed spoke with Robert Ray Barnes, the founder of the Black Lives Matter Foundation, who said he had absolutely no connection to the protest movement and was instead focused on programs that foster greater ties with the police.

“I don’t have anything to do with the Black Lives Matter Global Network. I never met them, never spoke to them. Our whole thing is having unity with the police department. No one owns the concept,” he said, adding that the name was allegedly his idea and that the movement founders stole it from him. 

“It appears there is a lot of scamming going on, but how can it have to do with me? I had plenty of motivation to create the Black Lives Matter Foundation and the people who were doing Black Lives Matter weren’t interested in a foundation. They never created it. Now all of the sudden they’re interested in it. They took my name and put this ‘inc’ behind it. They took my name. I own that name. I haven’t stolen anything from them. They have stolen from me. They have lied and been able to profit using my name,” he said.

“Timing is everything. I have nothing to hide. I am for real. This is part of my heart. I even wrote a song called ‘Hands Up, Don’t Shoot.’ Maybe I’ll release it now,” Barnes added.

Companies including Apple, Google, Dropbox and Microsoft fundraised at least $4 million for the Black Lives Matter Foundation in May and June, not knowing it was completely separate from the Black Lives Matter movement.

The foundation is on multiple crowdfunding platforms, including GoFundMe, PayPal, YourCause and Benevity, and has spent years taking in funds. When notified about the discrepancy, GoFundMe froze the money donated to the foundation 

"The Santa Clarita group is improperly using our name. We intend to call them out and follow up,” a spokesperson for Black Lives Matter said in a statement.

Barnes was defiant when pressed about how much money his foundation has received despite clearly benefiting from the Black Lives Matter movement that people mistakenly associated his organization with.

The Black Lives Matter movement came to prominence after the 2013 acquittal of George Zimmerman, the man who killed Black teenager Trayvon Martin.   

It morphed from a hashtag on Twitter and Instagram into a full-fledged movement that now has chapters across the world and most recently has been one of the leading forces behind the massive demonstrations against police brutality that began following the killing of George Floyd.

They have also spearheaded calls for police departments across the United States to be demilitarized, defunded and, in some cases, abolished.

"We call for a national defunding of police. We demand investment in our communities and the resources to ensure Black people not only survive, but thrive. If you’re with us, add your name to the petition right now and help us spread the word," Black Live Matter movement organizers said in a post on their website.

Barnes' foundation has a very different goal. On the Black Lives Matter Foundation page on Benevity, Barnes wrote that his organization wants to "heal the riffs between some communities and the police."

The website also displays a disclaimer stating that the foundation is not associated with the Black Lives Matter Global Network.

According to its 2017 tax filing obtained by BuzzFeed, the foundation has used its donations to pay Barnes' salary and donate to the Family Renewal Develop Center in Carson, California. Barnes said he has also donated to churches and his family's foundation with the money raised, which BuzzFeed could not verify. 

“It can’t be done overnight. The idea is to go slow,” he told BuzzFeed. 

Even before the current global conversation about police brutality and racism, the foundation had brought in more than $300,000 in donations since 2017, according to BuzzFeed. 

The news outlet noted that the California attorney general's office sent the foundation a cease-and-desist order in December for failing to file annual financial reports. Yet, the foundation still was able to bring in millions this month through major tech donors. 

Benevity founder Bryan de Lottinville said the millions that had been donated through the platform hadn't been disbursed yet, giving the company time to ask donors what they would like to do with the money.

Over the past few days, organizations across the country have faced scrutiny over how they spent the millions that were brought in following Floyd's death.

The Minnesota Freedom Fund was forced to take to Twitter to defend itself after people criticized the organization for spending just $200,000 of the reported $30 million the group raised over the last three weeks, according to Newsweek. 

To say again: we are paying, and have paid, all protest bail that's come our way. There are a lot more people in jail on bail. Now, we can help on a scale impossible last month. We want to spend this money down to get people out of cages (ICE too) and we want to do it right.

— Minnesota Freedom Fund (@MNFreedomFund) June 16, 2020

Crowdfunding platforms are taking down many of the campaigns associated with the Black Lives Matter Foundation.

“We'll work with all campaign organizers to make sure the money goes to the right place to support the Black Lives Matter movement," a GoFundMe spokesperson told BuzzFeed.