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Southern Poverty Law Center Indicted on Federal Fraud Charges Related to Past Use of Paid Informants
Prosecutors say the center hid more than $3 million in payments to informants who infiltrated extremist groups and misled donors about the program.
- On Tuesday, the Justice Department indicted the Southern Poverty Law Center on 11 counts, including wire fraud and money laundering, alleging the organization secretly funded extremist groups instead of dismantling them.
- Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche alleged the SPLC funneled at least $3 million to the Ku Klux Klan and other extremist groups between 2014 and 2023 using shell companies and prepaid cards to conceal payments from donors.
- CEO Bryan Fair promised the SPLC "will vigorously defend ourselves, our staff, and our work" while asserting that intelligence gathered from informants saved lives by monitoring violent threats.
- Critics, including FBI Director Kash Patel, have long accused the SPLC of being a "partisan smear machine," intensifying partisan disputes over whether the indictment represents legitimate law enforcement or political targeting.
- The federal indictment threatens the SPLC's legal standing and donor trust, while Patel indicated other organizations could face similar scrutiny as the DOJ continues investigating potential nonprofit misconduct.
125 Articles
125 Articles
The Southern Poverty Law Center denies the allegations and sees it as an intimidation attempt.
The U.S. Department of Justice has filed a lawsuit against the well-known civil rights organization Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) for alleged use of paid informants from extremist circles. The organization is accused of having paid at least three million dollars (2.55 million euros) to eight informants within the racist Ku Klux clan and other extremist groups in the years 2014 to 2023, Justice Minister Todd Blanche declared on Tuesday (loca…
The Department of Justice accuses the Southern Poverty Law Center of defrauding its donors. The leftist NGO says it paid to “infiltrate”.
The organization defends itself by saying that these are actually informants who were paid to obtain information, and the results were shared with the police.
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