A federal grand jury in Alabama indicted the Southern Poverty Law Center on 11 counts Tuesday, charging the civil rights nonprofit with defrauding donors through a concealed program that paid members of the Ku Klux Klan and other extremist groups, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and FBI Director Kash Patel said.
The case represents the most significant federal prosecution ever brought against a leading civil rights organization.
The indictment, returned in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama, charges the Montgomery, Alabama-based organization with six counts of wire fraud, four counts of making false statements to a federally insured bank, and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering.
Acting U.S. Attorney Kevin P. Davidson signed the charging document.
At a Justice Department news conference, Blanche said prosecutors allege the SPLC paid roughly $3 million between 2014 and 2023 to eight people tied to the Ku Klux Klan, United Klans of America, the National Socialist Party of America, the Aryan Nations-linked Sadistic Souls Motorcycle Club, and America First.
One recipient, described as a leader of the group that organized the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, was paid about $270,000 over eight years, Blanche said.
"The SPLC was not dismantling these groups," Blanche said. "It was instead manufacturing the extremism it purports to oppose by paying sources to stoke racial hatred."
He said the group never disclosed the informant program to donors, in violation of nonprofit transparency rules.
Prosecutors allege payments moved through at least five sham entities, including Center Investigative Agency, Fox Photography, North West Technologies, Tech Writers Group, and Rare Books Warehouse, before being loaded onto prepaid debit cards.
Patel, in a post on X mirroring his own news conference remarks, said the SPLC "lied to their donors" and paid extremist leaders whose activity in at least one case was "used to facilitate the commission of state and federal offenses." He said individuals remain under investigation.
The indictment names only the organization.
SPLC's interim CEO Bryan Fair disclosed the criminal probe earlier Tuesday. After the indictment was announced, he denied wrongdoing.
He said the program, now discontinued, gathered intelligence on violent groups and was frequently shared with law enforcement, including the FBI.
"We will vigorously defend ourselves, our staff, and our work," Fair said. He tied the program to threats dating to the 1983 firebombing of the SPLC's Montgomery offices.
The case sharpens a clash that escalated last October, when Patel severed FBI ties with the SPLC, calling it a "partisan smear machine." House Republicans held a December hearing accusing the group of coordinating with the Biden administration to target conservatives.
Prosecutors must now prove donor deception and intent. An arraignment date has not been set.
Jim Thomas ✉
Jim Thomas is a writer based in Indiana. He holds a bachelor's degree in Political Science, a law degree from U.I.C. Law School, and has practiced law for more than 20 years.
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