The U.S. Department of Justice announced earlier this week that it has secured an indictment against the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) for wire fraud, false statements to a federally insured bank, and conspiracy to commit concealment money laundering.
According to the DOJ, “Between 2014 and 2023, the SPLC secretly funneled more than $3 million in donated funds to individuals who were associated with various violent extremist groups including the Ku Klux Klan, Aryan Nations, and National Socialist Party of America.”
The U.S. Attorney’s office for the Middle District of Alabama is also seeking to recover proceeds from the SPLC’s alleged fraud scheme.
The SPLC claims it stands as a “beacon of hope, fighting white supremacy,” making the allegations that it paid racist groups inconsistent with its mission.
Nevertheless, the federal grand jury indictment states the SPLC began operating a network of informants in the 1980s. Between 2014 and 2023, the DOJ alleges the SPLC paid informants at least $3 million to promote racist groups while it denounced those same groups on its website.
According to the indictment, one of the alleged informants, identified as F-37, participated in planning the 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, where dozens were injured and one person was killed. This informant is said to have been paid $270,000.
In order to conceal its alleged payments, the DOJ claims the SPLC opened bank accounts under the names of fictitious entities in order to disguise the source of payments to informants. Some of the fictitious groups named in the indictment were Center Investigative Agency, Fox Photography, and Rare Books Warehouse. Read more»
Kim Roberts | “Southern Poverty Law Center Indicted for Wire Fraud” | April 24, 2026
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