Southern Poverty Law Center indicted for allegedly funding white supremacist groups

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) was indicted April 21 on federal fraud charges over a secret, years-long program in which the organization allegedly funneled donated funds to members of the same extremist groups it publicly claimed to be fighting.

A federal grand jury in Montgomery, Alabama, indicted the SPLC on 11 criminal counts — including wire fraud, false statements to a federally insured bank, and conspiracy to commit concealment money laundering.

“The Southern Poverty Law Center’s ('SPLC') stated mission included the dismantling of white supremacy and confronting hate across the country. However, unbeknownst to donors, some of their donated money was being used to fund the leaders and organizers of racist groups,” the indictment alleges.

“The SPLC was not dismantling these groups,” Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said during an April 21 press conference. “It was instead manufacturing the extremism it purports to oppose by paying sources to stoke racial hatred.” 

"The SPLC is manufacturing racism to justify its existence," Blanche said in the press release announcing the charges. "Using donor money to allegedly profit off Klansmen cannot go unchecked."

FBI Director Kash Patel, who investigated the case alongside the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation unit, laid out the alleged deception at the April 21 press conference.

"The Southern Poverty Law Center themselves advertise to raise money to dismantle violent extremist groups for a period of at least a decade," Patel said. "They used the fraudulently raised money — by lying to their donor network, thousands of Americans — to go ahead and actually pay the leadership of these supposed violent extremist groups. Just want to say that again. They used the money they raised from their donor network to actually pay the leadership of these very groups."

Patel said those payments went to individuals associated with the Ku Klux Klan, the United Klans of America, Unite the Right, the National Alliance, the National Socialist Movement, the Aryan Nations-affiliated Sadistic Souls Motorcycle Club, the National Socialist Party of America, and the American Front.

According to the Department of Justice (DOJ), the SPLC ran the payments through bank accounts connected to fictitious entities, with funds ultimately loaded onto prepaid cards before being handed to informants. The agency alleges the structure was designed to "shield the true nature, source, ownership, and control of the fraudulently obtained donated money."

The DOJ alleges the scheme ran from 2014 to 2023, during which time more than $3 million in donated funds were covertly paid to eight individuals affiliated with those groups — while donors were never told where their money was going.

Acting U.S. Attorney Kevin Davidson, whose office filed two forfeiture actions to recover alleged proceeds of the scheme, said that donors "gave their money believing they were supporting the fight against violent extremism.” But the SPLC instead allegedly “diverted a portion of those funds to benefit individuals and groups they claimed to oppose.” 

“That kind of deception undermines public trust and social cohesion,” Davidson said.

The SPLC's interim CEO, Bryan Fair, said the organization was being "targeted" by the Trump administration. The payments went to confidential sources who had "risked their lives to infiltrate and inform on the activities of our nation's most radical and violent extremist groups" and had provided information to the FBI that "saved lives,” according to Fair.

The SPLC's covert informant network dates back to the 1980s, according to the DOJ.

The SPLC has not filed a formal legal response to the indictment.