Justice Department indicts Southern Poverty Law Center on fraud charges

The Justice Department announced a federal indictment Tuesday against the Southern Poverty Law Center, accusing the storied civil rights organization of becoming a machine for fraud, collecting money from donors then siphoning it to foment the kind of hate that the center said it fights against.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche announced the charges, saying that since 2014 the SPLC has delivered $3 million to eight individuals associated with notorious hate groups such as the Ku Klux Klan, the National Socialist Movement and the Nazi party.

The group considered the money payments to informants, but used sham bank accounts to shield the source, the department said.

In one specific instance, the group paid more than $200,000 to a leader of Unite the Right, sponsors of the 2017 rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, that turned into a racially heated clash that left one person dead.

“The SPLC was not dismantling these groups. It was instead manufacturing the extremism it purports to oppose by paying to stoke racial hatred,” Mr. Blanche said.

The indictment includes six counts of wire fraud, four counts of bank fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering.

The grand jury in Alabama charged the SPLC as an entity, but Mr. Blanche said the investigation is ongoing and individuals could be charged in the future.

In an announcement ahead of the Justice Department’s action, the SPLC said the investigation related to its past use of paid informants to infiltrate “extremely violent groups,” and accused the administration of weaponizing the Justice Department against its foes.

Bryan Fair, the center’s interim president and CEO, said the probe comes as the latest politically motivated effort to discredit the Alabama-based organization known for its prolific fundraising and “hate map.”

The Trump administration has “made no secret of who they want to protect and who they want to destroy,” he said in a video announcement on the group’s website.

“For example, in October, FBI Director Kash Patel announced the bureau would sever its ties with the SPLC, and in December, House Republicans held a hearing to accuse us of being partisan and profitable,” Mr. Fair said.

“The latest threat is the most serious, a criminal investigation and possible charges against the SPLC or some of our employees,” he said. “Although we don’t know all the details, the focus appears to be on the SPLC’s prior use of paid confidential informants to gather credible intelligence on extremely violent groups.”

Mr. Fair defended the use of paid informants, saying they were necessary “because we are no stranger to threats of violence,” referring to the group’s mission to dismantle the Ku Klux Klan and racist groups by bankrupting them through litigation.

“When we began working with informants, we were 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 said. “There is no question that what we learned from informants saved lives.”

He added that the center often shared information with local and federal law enforcement, including the FBI, but otherwise kept the identities of the informants under wraps to protect their safety.

Mr. Blanche said the SPLC’s wire fraud stemmed from telling donors it was using its money to fight hate, then paying those who were engaged in it.

He said the bank fraud was due to the SPLC opening accounts in the name of fictitious companies to conceal the payments.

The eight people alleged to have received payments were part of the KKK, United Klans of America, Unite the Right, National Alliance, National Socialist Movement, American Front, the National Socialist Party of America and the Sadistic Souls Motorcycle Club, which is affiliated with the Aryan Nation.

Mr. Blanche said the payments went on “for a long time,” stopped for some reason during the Biden administration then resumed about a year ago.

BREAKING

The Southern Poverty Law Center says it is under “criminal investigation” for its paid informant program

Journalists like me have long expected SPLC might have cultivated informants, but this explicit confirmation is new.

1/5https://t.co/75hLVqs9dQ pic.twitter.com/Yw6V6Irnrw

— Tyler O’Neil (@Tyler2ONeil) April 21, 2026

Mr. Fair did not say when the center stopped using paid informants, raising questions about whether they were used only against the Klan in its heyday, or in most recent years against the mainstream Christian and conservative groups that populate its “hate map.”

Klan members firebombed the SPLC’s office in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1983. As the Klan’s membership and influence have plummeted, however, the center has expanded its reach, targeting groups such as Moms for Liberty, Parents Defending Education, Gays Against Groomers, Turning Point USA, and the California Family Council.

In 2012, a gunman inspired by the “hate map” attacked the conservative Family Research Council, shooting and wounding a security guard.

Even so, the SPLC was used as a resource during the Biden administration. Center officials visited the White House at least 11 times, and the SPLC was cited as a source for the FBI’s 2023 Richmond field office memo targeting “radical traditionalist Catholic ideology.”

Just as conservatives accused the Biden administration of weaponizing the federal government for political gain, Mr. Fair said the Trump administration has sought to destroy “any organization like ours that tries to stand in the breach.”

“We will vigorously defend ourselves, our staff and our work,” said Mr. Fair. “We will continue to fight hate, and we will continue to seek a safer and more just world. We trust that the many people and organizations who share our commitment to defending civil society will stand with us as we together fight injustice.”

Mr. Fair was named interim president in July after the resignation of Margaret Huang, who said she stepped down to care for her aging parents.

She took over in 2020 after a leadership crisis marked by the ouster of SPLC co-founder Morris Dees amid allegations of sexual harassment and racial discrimination, as well as the resignations of other top center officials.