SPLC Indicted on Trumped Up Fraud Charges for Reporting on far-right neo-Nazi Groups
The Justice Department indicted the Southern Poverty Law Center on Tuesday on federal fraud charges, alleging it improperly raised millions of dollars to pay informants infiltrating the Ku Klux Klan and other white nationalist groups. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche stated the organization defrauded donors by using their money to fund the extremism it claimed to oppose, with over $3 million paid to informants through a now-defunct program. The civil rights group faces charges of wire fraud, bank fraud, and conspiracy to commit money laundering in federal court in Alabama.
Prosecutors allege the SPLC created fraudulent bank accounts under fictitious names such as “Fox Photography” and “Rare Books Warehouse” to conceal money transfers to informants from donors. The indictment identifies at least nine unnamed informants paid through a secret program dating to the 1980s, including one who received over $1 million between 2014 and 2023 while affiliated with the neo-Nazi National Alliance. Another informant, paid over $270,000 between 2015 and 2023, was a member of an online leadership group that organized the 2017 white nationalist “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, and attended at the SPLC’s direction.
The SPLC stated it will vigorously defend itself against what it described as false allegations, asserting its informant program saved lives by monitoring violent extremist threats and sharing intelligence with law enforcement. Interim CEO Bryan Fair said the organization operated the program in secrecy to protect informant safety during a period marked by bombings, state-sponsored violence, and unsolved murders of civil rights activists. The organization contended it disclosed the program’s existence after the Justice Department’s investigation became public.
The indictment reflects escalating Republican attacks on the SPLC, which has faced intense criticism from conservative groups over its documentation of white nationalist and anti-government organizations. FBI Director Kash Patel severed the agency’s relationship with the center last year, calling it a “partisan smear machine” that defames “mainstream Americans” through its tracking of hate groups. House Republicans held a December hearing accusing the SPLC of coordinating with the Biden administration to target Christian and conservative organizations.
The prosecution follows other Justice Department investigations into Trump’s opponents and critics, intensifying concerns that the law enforcement agency has been weaponized for political purposes under the Republican administration.