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3w ago

Justice Department Indicts Southern Poverty Law Center on Fraud and Money Laundering Charges

The case tests whether covert informant payments by a civil-rights nonprofit can be prosecuted as donor and bank fraud.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche speaks as FBI Director Kash Patel listens during a news conference announcing charges against the Souther Poverty Law Center, at the Justice Department, on April 21, 2026.
Tourists walk past the Department of Justice in Washington, DC, on February 27, 2026.
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Overview

  • The DOJ, which announced the case Tuesday, charged the SPLC with 11 counts after alleging it sent more than $3 million from 2014 to 2023 to people tied to the KKK and neo-Nazi groups.
  • Prosecutors say the group hid transfers through fake business names and bank accounts and paid an informant linked to planning the 2017 Charlottesville rally about $270,000.
  • The SPLC says the payments were part of a decades-old confidential informant program used to infiltrate violent groups and protect staff, and it says the program has since ended.
  • Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said the probe began under the Biden administration and was reopened during President Trump’s second term, and FBI Director Kash Patel had cut formal ties with the SPLC in October 2025.
  • The case is in federal court in Montgomery before Judge Emily Marks with related forfeiture filings, and legal experts say gaps on how funds furthered crimes or misled donors could hinder prosecutors as civil-rights groups decry the case as politicized.