Southern Poverty Law Center charged in fraud scheme that funneled money to racial hate group contacts

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Civil Rights group, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), has been indicted by an Alabama Grand Jury on 11 counts of wire fraud, creating false bank statements, and engaging in a conspiracy to conceal money laundering operations involving individuals tied to multiple racially charged hate groups.

🚨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

According to the Department of Justice press release, issued on Tuesday, these crimes took place between 2014 and 2023 and amounted to the SPLC secretly funneling over $3 million to contacts associated with a slew of white supremacist groups, including the Ku Klux Klan, United Klans of America, Unite the Right, American Front, and more.

“The SPLC allegedly engaged in a massive fraud operation to deceive their donors, enrich themselves, and hide their deceptive operations from the public,” FBI Director Kash Patel stated in the release. “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.”

During a press conference on the subject, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche exposed the non-profit’s charges alongside FBI Director Kash Patel. He stated that the SPLC was “manufacturing the extremism it proports to oppose by paying sources to stoke racial hatred.”

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche on the Southern Poverty Law Center Indictment: “As the indictment describes, the SPLC was not dismantling these groups. It was instead manufacturing the extremism it purports to oppose by paying sources to stoke racial hatred.” pic.twitter.com/jWcouiPJ54

— U.S. Department of Justice (@TheJusticeDept) April 21, 2026

“The SPLC was paying a member of the leadership group that planned the Unite the Right protest in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017 that resulted in the death of one person and injured dozens more,” he added.

In 2017, the SPLC published an article supposedly exposing the “extremists” of the Unite the Right Rally that they are now charged in connection with. It branded the rally a “’summer of hate’ gathering of racist extremists.”

Last fall, FBI Director Kash Patel ended FBI partnerships with the SPLC and the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), due to concerns over political bias. “The Southern Poverty Law Center long ago abandoned civil rights work and turned into a partisan smear machine,” he publicly declared in a post on X. He accused the organization of defaming mainstream Americans and inspiring violence. “That disgraceful record makes them unfit for any FBI partnership.” He concluded, “Under this FBI, all ties with the SPLC have officially been terminated.”

Now, the SPLC is facing charges regarding years of illegally funding the groups that the organization claimed to be fighting against.