Justice Department Charges Civil Rights Group With Fraud Over Informant Payments

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche announced an 11-count indictment against the Southern Poverty Law Center on Tuesday, accusing the civil rights organization of defrauding donors through a secret program that paid informants to infiltrate extremist groups. The charges include six counts of wire fraud, four counts of bank fraud, and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. The Justice Department alleges the organization funneled more than $3 million between 2014 and 2023 to individuals affiliated with violent extremist groups including the Ku Klux Klan, the National Alliance, the National Socialist Movement, and the Aryan Nations.

Blanche stated at a news conference that the SPLC "was not dismantling these groups. It was instead manufacturing the extremism it purports to oppose by paying sources to stoke racial hatred." According to the indictment, the organization used multiple bank accounts connected to fictitious entities and loaded money onto prepaid cards to conceal payments to informants. The group never disclosed these details to donors, Blanche said, violating nonprofit transparency requirements about how donated funds would be spent.

The indictment details payments to at least nine unnamed informants, known within the organization as field sources or "the Fs." One informant affiliated with the neo-Nazi National Alliance received more than $1 million over nine years after stealing 25 boxes of documents from the group's headquarters. Another informant, who served as Imperial Wizard of the United Klaus of America, received payments from the organization. A third informant was part of the online leadership chat group that planned the 2017 Unite the Right event in Charlottesville, Virginia, and made racist postings under SPLC supervision while helping coordinate transportation for attendees. The organization sent more than $270,000 to this person, though the indictment does not specify the nature of the work performed.

SPLC CEO Bryan Fair said the organization "will vigorously defend ourselves, our staff, and our work." In a video statement, Fair accused prosecutors of weaponizing the justice system and noted that the organization no longer works with paid informants. He defended the program's necessity, citing a 1983 firebomb attack on the group's office and repeated threats against staff members. Fair stated that informants "risked their lives to infiltrate and inform on the activities of our nation's most radical and violent extremist groups" and that the information gathered "saved lives."

Fair contextualized the program's origins, saying the organization began working with informants while "living in the shadow of the height of the Civil Rights Movement, which had seen bombings at churches, state-sponsored violence against demonstrators, and the murders of activists that went unanswered by the justice system." He noted that the organization frequently shared information gathered by informants with police and the FBI.

The SPLC has faced sustained criticism from Republicans who view it as a partisan organization. In October, FBI Director Kash Patel announced the agency was severing its relationship with the center, calling it a "partisan smear machine" and accusing it of defaming "mainstream Americans" with its hate map. House Republicans hosted a hearing on the organization in December, alleging it coordinated efforts with the Biden administration to target Christian and conservative Americans.

The organization has drawn particular scrutiny for its characterization of groups including Turning Point USA, the Family Research Council, and Moms for Liberty. The SPLC was founded in 1971 and has used civil litigation to fight white supremacist groups, but the organization regularly condemns Trump's rhetoric and policies on voting rights and immigration. The indictment came shortly after the SPLC disclosed the existence of a criminal investigation into its informant program.