Overview
- Federal prosecutors in Montgomery, Alabama announced Tuesday an 11‑count indictment alleging the Southern Poverty Law Center used more than $3 million in donor funds to pay extremist‑linked informants.
- Charging documents say the group made false statements to a federally insured bank to open accounts under fake business names and then routed payments through those accounts to sources inside white supremacist organizations.
- The indictment cites examples that include about $1 million to a National Alliance affiliate, roughly $270,000 to a participant tied to the 2017 Unite the Right planning chat, and more than $300,000 to an Aryan Nations‑affiliated officer.
- SPLC leaders say the payments were part of a long‑running confidential informant program used to gather intelligence on violent groups and shared with law enforcement, and they add the practice has since ended and saved lives.
- Legal experts note the filing lacks specific instances showing donor deception or crimes funded by the payments and predict First Amendment and evidentiary hurdles, as the case lands before U.S. District Judge Emily Marks after the FBI cut formal ties with SPLC last October.