Southern Poverty Law Center charged with defrauding donors with payments
to extremist informants
[April 22, 2026]
By COLLIN BINKLEY, ALANNA DURKIN RICHER and REBECCA BOONE
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Southern Poverty Law Center was indicted Tuesday
on federal fraud charges alleging it improperly raised millions of
dollars to secretly pay leaders of the Ku Klux Klan and other hate
groups for inside information, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche
said.
The Justice Department alleges the civil rights group defrauded donors
by using their money to fund the very extremism it claimed to be
fighting, with more than $3 million paid to informants through a
now-defunct program to infiltrate white supremacist and other extremist
groups. Prosecutors allege some of the money was used by extremists to
carry out other crimes, but court papers did not include specific
examples.
“The SPLC was not dismantling these groups. It was instead manufacturing
the extremism it purports to oppose by paying sources to stoke racial
hatred,” Blanche said.
The civil rights group faces charges of wire fraud, bank fraud and
conspiracy to commit money laundering in the case brought in the federal
court in Alabama, where the organization is based.
The indictment came shortly after the SPLC revealed the existence of a
criminal investigation into its disbanded informant program to gather
intelligence on extremist group activities. The group said the program
was used to monitor threats of violence and the information was often
shared with local and federal law enforcement.
The SPLC said it “will vigorously defend ourselves, our staff, and our
work" against what it described as false allegations. The group said its
informant program saved lives.
“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,” interim CEO and president Bryan Fair said in a statement. “The
actions by the DOJ will not shake our resolve to fight for justice and
ensure the promise of the Civil Rights Movement becomes a reality for
all."
A program that dated back to the 1980s
The Justice Department alleges the SPLC made false statements to banks
in order to set up accounts used to funnel money to informants. The
group created bank accounts for fictitious entities such as “Fox
Photography” and “Rare Books Warehouse” that were used to send money
from donors to informants, in a scheme to conceal the money’s actual
purpose, the indictment alleges.
Prosecutors say the group never disclosed to donors details of the
informant program.
“They’re required to under the laws associated with a nonprofit to have
certain transparency and honesty in what they’re telling donors they’re
going to spend money on and what their mission statement is and what
they’re raising money doing,” Blanche said.
The indictment includes details on at least nine unnamed informants were
paid by the SPLC through a secret program that prosecutors say began in
the 1980s. Within the SPLC, they were known as field sources or “the
Fs,” according to the indictment.
One informant was paid more than $1 million between 2014 and 2023 while
affiliated with the neo-Nazi National Alliance, the indictment said.
Prosecutors say another informant was a member of the “online leadership
chat group” that planned the 2017 white nationalist “Unite the Right”
rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. The informant attended the rally at
the direction of the SPLC, according to the indictment, and helped
coordinate transportation for several others. That person was allegedly
paid more than $270,000 between 2015 and 2013.
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Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche speaks as FBI Director Kash
Patel listens during a news conference at the Justice Department,
Tuesday, April 21, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
The SPLC said the program was kept quiet to protect the safety of
informants.
“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,” Fair
said. “There is no question that what we learned from informants saved
lives.”
The center has been targeted by Republicans
The SPLC, which is based in Montgomery, Alabama, was founded in 1971 and
used civil litigation to fight white supremacist groups. The nonprofit
has become a popular target among Republicans who see it as overly
leftist and partisan.
The investigation could add to concerns that Trump's Republican
administration is using the Justice Department to go after conservative
opponents and his critics. It follows a number of other investigations
into Trump foes that have raised questions about whether the law
enforcement agency has been turned into a political weapon.
The SPLC has faced intense criticism from conservatives, who have
accused it of unfairly maligning right-wing organizations as extremist
groups because of their viewpoints. The center regularly condemns
Trump’s rhetoric and policies around voting rights, immigration and
other issues.
The center came under fresh scrutiny after the assassination last year
of conservative activist Charlie Kirk brought renewed attention to its
characterization of the group that Kirk founded and led. The center
included a section on that group, Turning Point USA, in a report titled
“The Year in Hate and Extremism 2024” that described the group as “A
Case Study of the Hard Right in 2024.”
FBI Director Kash Patel said last year that the agency was severing its
relationship with the center, which had long provided law enforcement
with research on hate crime and domestic extremism. Patel said the
center had been turned into a “partisan smear machine,” and he accused
it of defaming “mainstream Americans” with its “hate map” that documents
alleged anti-government and hate groups inside the United States.
House Republicans hosted a hearing centered on the SPLC in December,
saying it coordinated efforts with President Joe Biden's Democratic
administration "to target Christian and conservative Americans and
deprive them of their constitutional rights to free speech and free
association.”
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Boone reported from Boise, Idaho.
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