Federal prosecutors have leveled serious fraud charges against the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), alleging the prominent civil rights organization secretly funneled millions of dollars to informants within the very extremist groups it publicly opposes.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche announced the indictment on Tuesday, accusing the Alabama-based nonprofit of wire fraud, bank fraud, and conspiracy to commit money laundering. The charges stem from what prosecutors describe as a years-long scheme involving payments to individuals connected to white supremacist organizations including the Ku Klux Klan, neo-Nazi groups, and participants in the deadly 2017 Charlottesville rally.
"The SPLC was not dismantling these groups," Blanche stated during the news conference. "It was instead manufacturing the extremism it purports to oppose by paying sources to stoke racial hatred."
The indictment alleges the organization transferred over $3 million between 2014 and 2023 to individuals associated with violent extremist movements. In one particularly striking example, prosecutors claim the SPLC paid more than $1 million over nine years to an informant who infiltrated the National Alliance—a neo-Nazi organization—and stole documents from their headquarters.
Another payment detailed in court documents shows the group sent $270,000 to someone who helped plan and attended the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, though the indictment doesn't specify what services this individual provided.
SPLC interim leader Bryan Fair responded in a video statement, defending the organization's 55-year history of combating white supremacy and noting their use of informants was necessary given repeated threats of violence against their staff.
"We are therefore unsurprised to be the latest organization targeted by this administration," Fair said, referencing the group's contentious relationship with federal authorities in recent years.
The charges come amid longstanding political tensions, with some conservative groups accusing the SPLC of partisan targeting. The FBI severed ties with the organization last October, labeling it a "partisan smear machine."
Prosecutors allege the SPLC deceived donors about how their contributions would be used, obtaining funds through "materially false representations" about the organization's activities. The case represents a significant escalation in the government's scrutiny of nonprofit organizations engaged in monitoring extremist movements.