DOJ Indicts Southern Poverty Law Center on Federal Fraud Charges
A historic civil rights group was indicted last week on federal fraud charges for allegedly improperly raising millions of dollars to pay hate groups for information. Here is a closer look at these charges and what the government is accusing the group of doing.
DOJ Indicts Historic Civil Rights Group on Charges of Fraud
The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) was charged on Tuesday with allegedly defrauding donors with payments to extremist informants. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche announced the charges on Tuesday, accusing the SPLC of raising money to pay leaders of the Ku Klux Klan and other nefarious hate groups for inside information.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), the SPLC defrauded its donors by using raised funds to pay leaders of the extremist groups it claimed to be working against. The DOJ said that the SPLC used more than $3 million to pay informants through a former program aimed at infiltrating white supremacist groups. While the court papers did not detail specific examples of this fraud, prosecutors said that some of the money raised was also used by the extremist groups for criminal activity.
Blanche is accusing the SPLC of "manufacturing the extremism it purports to oppose by paying sources to stoke racial hatred." The SPLC now faces various charges of bank fraud, wire fraud, and conspiracy to commit money laundering. The case was brought in a federal court in Alabama, the state where the SPLC is based.
The SPLC is denying the charges, saying that the program was used to simply monitor threats of violence. The group said that the information was frequently reported to local and federal law enforcement officials in a joint effort to glean information about extremist group activities in order to save lives.
SPLC interim CEO and president Bryan Fair released a statement noting that "taking on violent hate and extremist groups is among the most dangerous work there is, and we believe it is also among the most important work we do.” Fair went on to say that the charges will not deter the group from fighting for justice.
Inside the Details of the DOJ Charges
The DOJ is accusing the SPLC of making inaccurate statements to banks in an attempt to set up accounts used to send money to informants. The SPLC created these bank accounts for fake entities, going by fictitious names such as "Rare Books Warehouse" and "Fox Photography." The indictment formally alleges that the SPLC used the fake accounts to send money from donors to informants.
Prosecutors claim that the SPLC never told its donors about the informant program. Blanche said that these groups are required under nonprofit laws to provide this transparency to donors.
The DOJ indictment goes into detail about at least nine unnamed informants who were reportedly paid by the SPLC secret program. Prosecutors say that the program began in the 1980s. The indictment notes that one informant was paid over $1 million over the course of nearly a decade while still affiliated with the neo-Nazi National Alliance.
Another informant was allegedly a member of the online group that planned the deadly 2017 white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. According to the indictment, the informant went to that rally as part of their work with the SPLC. This informant was reportedly paid over $270,000 between the years 2015 and 2023.
The SPLC said that the reason the program was so secretive was that they were trying to protect the safety of their informants. Fair said that the group's work began during the height of the violence of the Civil Rights Movement, a time when it was critical to protect the safety of those involved.
About the SPLC and Its Past
Based in Montgomery, Alabama, the SPLC was founded in 1971 to fight white supremacist groups. The nonprofit group has often been targeted by Republicans who view it as being too leftist and partisan.
Critics of the recent indictment say that it was yet another overreach by the Trump administration to use the DOJ for their own gain. Democrats have been increasingly accusing the president of using the DOJ as a personal political weapon.
The SPLC has long been criticized by conservatives, who accuse the group of purposely painting right-wing organizations as extremist because of their opposing viewpoints. The nonprofit has a history of condemning Trump and his policies surrounding immigration, voting rights, and other hot-button civil rights issues.
The center was thrust into the national spotlight last year after the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. The SPLC included Kirk's Turning Point USA group in a report titled "The Year in Hate and Extremism 2024." The report characterized Turning Point USA as “A Case Study of the Hard Right in 2024.”
FBI Director Kash Patel announced last year that the top federal investigative agency was ending its relationship with the SPLC. The center had previously provided federal and local law enforcement officials with its research on hate crimes. Patel defended the decision to disassociate with the center, saying that it had turned into what he called a "partisan smear machine."
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