The Southern Poverty Law Center faces federal charges of wire fraud, bank fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering after allegedly paying more than $3 million to informants in extremist groups. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche announced the indictment Tuesday in Washington, accusing the group of defrauding donors. The SPLC vowed to defend itself vigorously.
The Justice Department indicted the Southern Poverty Law Center on Tuesday in federal court in Alabama's Middle District. Prosecutors allege the Montgomery-based nonprofit secretly funneled over $3 million from donors to leaders of groups including the Ku Klux Klan, National Alliance, Aryan Nations and participants in the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. The payments supported a now-defunct informant program dating to the 1980s, known internally as 'the Fs.' One informant received more than $1 million from 2014 to 2023 while affiliated with the neo-Nazi National Alliance, and another got over $270,000 linked to the Unite the Right planning, according to the indictment. The group allegedly used fictitious bank accounts like 'Fox Photography' and 'Rare Books Warehouse' to conceal the transfers and made false statements to banks, leading to 11 counts including wire fraud and conspiracy to conceal money laundering. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said at a news conference, 'The SPLC was not dismantling these groups. It was instead manufacturing the extremism it purports to oppose by paying sources to stoke racial hatred.' FBI Director Kash Patel added that the SPLC used donor money 'to actually pay the leadership of these very groups.' The SPLC, founded in 1971 to combat white supremacist groups through litigation, described the program as essential for monitoring threats and sharing intelligence with law enforcement. Interim President Bryan Fair stated, 'There is no question that what we learned from informants saved lives,' emphasizing its secrecy protected sources amid Civil Rights-era dangers. The group called the allegations false and affirmed its resolve to fight for justice.
