Federal indictment accuses SPLC of secretly funding hate groups while soliciting donations
Superseding indictment alleges roughly $4.1 million was funneled to ‘field sources’ tied to extremist organizations between 2010 and 2023.
(Editor’s note: The video above is from an earlier report.)
ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) — A federal grand jury returned a superseding indictment this week accusing the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) of running a yearslong scheme that allegedly used donor money to covertly pay leaders and affiliates of racist extremist groups.
The indictment said the Montgomery, Alabama-based organization publicly raised money by promising to “dismantle” white supremacy and hate organizations at the same time as the alleged scheme.
Why this matters
- The indictment alleges a major civil rights nonprofit misled donors by publicly opposing hate while covertly funding extremists with tax-exempt donations.
- Prosecutors say the alleged payments supported real-world extremist activity, raising public safety and accountability concerns.
- The case could impact donor trust and oversight expectations for nonprofits that solicit money for advocacy and anti-hate work.
A superseding indictment is a new indictment that replaces an earlier one in the same criminal case, and is usually filed when prosecutors want to add charges, add defendants, update or correct facts, or include new allegations or evidence the grand jury has considered.
The case then proceeds on the superseding indictment, not the original.
The superseding indictment comes after the SPLC was indicted in April on federal fraud charges related to its past use of paid informants to infiltrate extremist groups. That indictment came shortly after the SPLC revealed the existence of a criminal investigation into its program to pay informants to infiltrate extremist groups and gather information on their activities.
This week’s 21-page filing in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama alleges that from about 2010 through at least August 2023, the SPLC funneled roughly $4.1 million in tax-exempt donor funds to “field sources,” described as paid informants or operatives tied to groups including the Ku Klux Klan, Aryan Nations, National Alliance and others.
Prosecutors claim the money helped finance activities such as recruiting, hosting rallies, purchasing materials for cross burnings and producing extremist propaganda.
>> READ THE SUPERSEDING INDICTMENT:
According to the indictment, SPLC employees hid the payments by opening bank accounts tied to a series of fictitious entities — including names like “Center Investigative Agency,” “Tech Writers Group,” and “Rare Books Warehouse” — to make it appear the extremists were being paid by legitimate businesses rather than the SPLC. The document also alleges the organization made false statements to FDIC-insured banks connected to those accounts.
six counts of wire fraud, four counts of making false statements to a federally insured bank and one count of conspiracy to commit concealment money laundering. The indictment also includes forfeiture allegations seeking assets tied to the alleged crimes.
The filing outlines several examples, including one “field source” who allegedly participated in planning discussions for the 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, and another instance in which prosecutors say stolen documents were used in SPLC publishing. As in all criminal cases, the allegations are claims by prosecutors and must be proven in court.
No response from the SPLC is included in the court document.
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