The largest Black Lives Matter Facebook page was run by a group of Australian men who funneled upwards of $100,000 to several bank accounts.

According to CNN, the page was connected to major donor sites like PayPal, Patreon, Donorbox and Classy. Facebook reportedly shut down the page after a week of receiving calls and emails from CNN concerning the site's legitimacy. An account administering the page was also suspended prior to CNN's investigation.

More than 700,000 people followed the page, twice as many as the official Black Lives Matter page.

The damning report has identified Ian Mackay as one of the men associated with the page. Mackay was a high-ranking official with the National Union of Workers (NUW) that was also connected to other websites associated with black rights.

As early as 2015, he registered websites such as blacklivesnews.com, blackkillingsmatter.com, backfists.com and more than 100 other sites reports The Guardian. Blackpowerfist.com was a Reddit-like forum that encouraged users to donate.

After the discovery of his connection to the page, the NUW suspended him immediately.

“The NUW is not involved in and has not authorized any activities with reference to claims made in CNN’s story,” NUW’s national secretary, Tim Kennedy, said in a statement to The Guardian.

Patrisse Cullors, one of the co-founders of the Black Lives Matter movement, told CNN that Black Lives Matter had contacted Facebook about removing the page a few months ago, but Facebook failed to act upon the request.

While the page didn't immediately appear suspicious, it did contain a few red flags. For example, the page said it was “not funded by any other BLM group, George Soros, Ford Foundation or celebrity.”

The page also said it aimed to "help people who can’t get support otherwise that are victims of hate crimes or have been affected by racism that come to us, we can’t often help them financially but try our best to get them free legal advice or someplace to stay with one of our network,” according to an archived donations link to the site.

In wake of the social media platform's connection to Cambridge Analytica and Russian interference with the 2016 presidential election, Facebook has responded to the BLM controversy in a statement:

“We investigated this situation as soon as it was brought to our attention, and disabled the page admin for maintaining multiple profiles on the platform…We continue to look into the situation and will take the necessary action in line with our policies.”

National Union of Workers official

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