The Justice Department on Tuesday announced a federal grand jury had indicted the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) with “11 counts of wire fraud, false statements to a federally insured bank, and conspiracy to commit concealment money laundering.”
“Between 2014 and 2023, the SPLC secretly funneled more than $3 million in donated funds to individuals who were associated with various violent extremist groups including the Ku Klux Klan and National Socialist Party of America (American Nazi Party),” the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Alabama stated in a press release.
“The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Alabama Northern Division filed two forfeiture actions to recover alleged proceeds of the organization’s fraud scheme. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) investigated this case with assistance from the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI),” the release continued.
“Justice Department announces indictment against Southern Poverty Law Center (‘SPLC’). Our indictment alleges SPLC secretly funneled MORE THAN $3 MILLION in funds to members of white supremacist and extremist groups,” the Justice Department stated on X.
🚨HAPPENING NOW: Justice Department announces indictment against Southern Poverty Law Center (“SPLC”). Our indictment alleges SPLC secretly funneled MORE THAN $3 MILLION in funds to members of white supremacist and extremist groups. pic.twitter.com/Ifpda94f7D
— U.S. Department of Justice (@TheJusticeDept) April 21, 2026
CNBC shared further:
Between 2014 and 2023, the SPLC paid at least $3 million to eight individuals, some of whom were associated with the Ku Klux Klan, the United Klans of America, the National Socialist Party of America, the Aryan Nations-affiliated Sadistic Souls Motorcycle Club and the American Front, said Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche at a press conference.
“The SPLC was not dismantling the groups,” said Blanche, as FBI Director Kash Patel stood at his side. “It was instead manufacturing the extremism it purports to oppose by paying sources to stoke racial hatred.”
“One troubling example, is the SPLC was paying a member of the leadership group that planned the Unite the Right protest in Charlottesville, Virginia, that resulted in the death of one person, and injured dozens more,” the acting attorney general said, noting that the indictment alleged that the group paid the person about $270,000 over the course of eight years.
The SPLC earlier Tuesday said it was the subject of a criminal probe by the DOJ, and that the focus of the probe appeared to be on the group’s prior use of paid, confidential informants “to gather credible intelligence on extremely violent groups.”
The group’s interim CEO, Bryan Fair, in a statement responding to Blanche’s press conference, said, “We are outraged by the false allegations levied against SPLC — an organization that for 55 years has stood as a beacon of hope fighting white supremacy and various forms of injustice to create a multi-racial democracy where we can all live and thrive.
“Taking on violent hate and extremist groups is among the most dangerous work there is, and we believe it is also among the most important work we do. To be clear, this program saved lives,” Fair said.
“The SPLC is manufacturing racism to justify its existence,” said Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche.
“Using donor money to allegedly profit off Klansmen cannot go unchecked. This Department of Justice will hold the SPLC and every other fraudulent organization operating with the same deceptive playbook accountable. No entity is above the law,” he continued.
“The SPLC allegedly engaged in a massive fraud operation to deceive their donors, enrich themselves, and hide their deceptive operations from the public,” said FBI Director Kash Patel.
“They lied to their donors, vowing to dismantle violent extremist groups, and actually turned around and paid the leaders of these very extremist groups – even utilizing the funds to have these groups facilitate the commission of state and federal crimes. That is illegal – and this is an ongoing investigation against all individuals involved,” he added.
Watch below:
🚨 BREAKING: Acting AG Blanche and FBI Director Patel announce a grand jury has INDICTED leftist NGO Southern Poverty Law Center on 11 COUNTS
This is MASSIVE!
SPLC said they were “fighting white supremacy,” but they were “MANUFACTURING the extremism it purports to expose” by… pic.twitter.com/WtyvBUuwrW
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) April 21, 2026
More from The Guardian:
It is “very odd” to charge a corporate entity with these crimes, said Andrew Tessman, a former federal prosecutor who handled financial fraud cases.
“To prove wire fraud, you have to show that the defendant had intent to defraud. That’s hard to do even when you’re talking about an individual person. To establish that an entire corporate entity had intent to defraud seems exceptionally difficult,” he said. “Same goes for bank fraud. Difficult crime to prove because you have to prove what is going on inside someone’s head at the moment they are conducting the financial transactions. Easier to do with an individual because you can get the context from other witnesses and sometimes emails or texts.”
“I don’t think they can prove their case at trial,” he added.
One area where prosecutors might have success is in looking at what representations the SPLC had made to banks. Tessman noted that prosecutors had not technically filed bank fraud charges against the SPLC, but rather charged them with making a false statement to a bank. “It’s an underused but powerful statute. It just requires an intentional false statement to a bank. If it is true that the SPLC set up false entities and the bank was not aware of it, they could succeed on those charges.”
Read the full press release HERE.
