A federal grand jury in Alabama has indicted the Southern Poverty Law Center on charges of wire fraud, making false statements, and money laundering for funneling over $3 million to the very “hate groups” it claims to fight.
The indictment alleges that the SPLC paid money directly to the American Nazi Party, two Ku Klux Klan groups, and the Unite the Right group responsible for the 2017 Charlottesville protest. This practice began in the 1980s and continued through at least 2023.
According to the indictment, the SPLC secretly funneled funds to eight “field sources” (designated as “Fs”) affiliated with violent extremist groups, including members of the Ku Klux Klan, the Aryan Nation, and the National Alliance. Some payments totaled more than $270,000 over eight years to an operative linked to planning the Unite the Right rally where a person died. Another field source received over $1 million during two decades working with the neo-Nazi National Alliance, including involvement in document thefts from violent extremist groups.
The indictment details how SPLC employees opened bank accounts connected to fictitious entities—such as Fox Photography and Tech Writers Group—to conceal payments made through these offshore channels. Donors were never informed that funds they contributed would be used to pay leaders of the very groups SPLC denounced online, nor was it disclosed that some money supported violent extremist activities or state and federal crimes.
The indictment states: “Donors were not told that some of the donated funds were to be used by the SPLC to pay high-level leaders of violent extremist groups and others.”
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche stated: “The SPLC is manufacturing racism to justify its existence.” The DOJ asserts that SPLC’s scheme—using donor money to allegedly profit off racist groups—cannot go unchecked.
