The Justice Department announced Tuesday that a federal grand jury in Alabama indicted the Southern Poverty Law Center on 11 counts tied to alleged fraud in its nonprofit investigations of extremist groups. According to the indictment, the SPLC paid members of far-right organizations as part of an informant program and did not disclose those payments to donors or banks. The charges include six counts of wire fraud, four counts of bank fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said the SPLC “purports to fight white supremacy and racial hatred,” but alleged the group “was not dismantling these groups” and instead “manufactur[ed] the extremism it purports to oppose by paying sources to stoke racial hatred.” The indictment alleges more than $3 million in donations were funneled to individuals associated with far‑right groups, including neo‑Nazi and Ku Klux Klan–linked organizations. Blanche also claimed the SPLC paid the leader of a group involved in planning the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, where antiracism activist Heather Heyer was killed.
The SPLC, long known for tracking white supremacists and hate groups and frequently criticized by allies of former President Trump, denied the allegations. In a statement, the organization’s interim president and CEO, Bryan Fair, said the SPLC was “outraged by the false allegations in the indictment” and will “vigorously defend ourselves, our staff, and our work.” Fair had earlier said in a video that the group is under DOJ investigation related to a now‑defunct paid confidential informant program.
Blanche said the paid informant program continued through at least 2023 and that the probe dated back years, paused at one point during the Biden administration and was later revived. The indictment and statements from the DOJ set the stage for what both sides characterize as a contentious legal fight.