A federal grand jury in Alabama has indicted the Southern Poverty Law Center on charges of wire fraud, giving false information to a bank, and conspiracy to commit concealment money laundering, the Justice Department confirmed Tuesday.
The indictment, filed in the Middle District of Alabama, alleges the SPLC funneled donor money to high-level leaders of violent extremist organizations, including the Ku Klux Klan and the National Socialist Party of America, without disclosing the payments to donors.
“Donors were not told that some of the donated funds were to be used by the SPLC to pay high-level leaders of violent extremist groups and others,” the indictment states.
The indictment goes further, alleging the SPLC ran a network of paid informants who actively promoted the same racist groups the organization publicly denounced on its website. One field source was embedded in the online leadership chat group that organized the 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
“That field source made racist postings under the supervision of the SPLC and helped coordinate transportation to the event for several attendees,” the indictment stated.
Prosecutors also charged that the SPLC “opened bank accounts connected to a series of fictitious entities” and provided false information to banks to keep the operation running.
The SPLC has faced years of criticism from conservative organizations for branding mainstream right-leaning groups as hate groups, a practice that has been used by corporations to cut business ties or restrict services to those organizations. The indictment is the most consequential legal challenge the organization has ever faced.
