Federal prosecutors have expanded their criminal case against the Southern Poverty Law Center, alleging the nonprofit used donor funds to pay members of white nationalist and Ku Klux Klan organizations to remain active inside extremist groups.
According to the New York Post, the new accusations were detailed in a superseding indictment filed Tuesday in federal court in Montgomery, Alabama.
The Justice Department initially charged the organization in April with multiple counts, including wire fraud, false statements to a bank, and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
The latest filing provides additional details about how prosecutors claim confidential sources were paid over a period spanning more than a decade.
According to the indictment, two Klan members identified as F-31 and F-32 approached the SPLC in 2010 because they feared for their safety and wanted to leave the organization.
Instead of helping them exit, prosecutors allege the nonprofit paid them $1,200 per month plus expenses through a shell company known as Rare Books Warehouse.
Federal prosecutors claim some of the reimbursed expenses were tied directly to Klan activities, including recruiting new members and producing traditional white robes.
The indictment also alleges the pair were reimbursed for costs associated with cross-burnings, including wood and fuel.
Prosecutors contend the SPLC used fictitious companies to conceal payments made to informants from donors. According to the filing, roughly $3 million was paid to eight field sources between 2014 and 2023.
Among those sources, prosecutors say, were a Ku Klux Klan Imperial Wizard and a leader of an online group involved in organizing the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
The indictment states that one source connected to the Charlottesville rally received approximately $270,000 from 2015 through 2023.
Another source allegedly received $1.2 million. Prosecutors claim that the source, who was reportedly involved in a romantic relationship with an SPLC employee, stole 25 boxes of documents from the neo-Nazi National Alliance.
The documents were later used in material published on the SPLC’s “Hatewatch” website, according to the indictment.
Federal prosecutors also pointed to the organization’s financial growth during the years the payments were allegedly made.
The filing claims SPLC revenue increased from approximately $38.7 million in 2010 to more than $129 million in 2023. Its net assets allegedly rose from more than $238 million to more than $786 million during the same period.
When the original indictment was announced in April, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche accused the organization of crossing a line.
The SPLC was “manufacturing the extremism it purports to oppose by paying sources to stoke racial hatred,” Blanche said.
The nonprofit has pushed back against the allegations, arguing in court filings that its informants provided valuable intelligence that was later shared with law enforcement agencies.
“Department of Justice also knows that these confidential informants helped law enforcement put violent extremists in jail,” SPLC attorneys wrote.
The organization cited cases involving extremists, including an alleged member of the white supremacist group Atomwaffen Division who authorities said planned a major attack in Las Vegas.
The SPLC also sought an injunction against Blanche over public comments questioning whether information gathered from the sources was shared with law enforcement.
“There’s no information that we have that suggests that the money they were paying to these informants and these members of these organizations, they then turned around and shared what they learned with law enforcement,” Blanche said during an appearance on “The Ingraham Angle.”
He later acknowledged on “Sunday with Shannon Bream” that the organization had provided information to law enforcement over the years, while noting that such conduct is not part of the criminal charges.
“It is true that over the years [the SPLC has] selectively shared information with law enforcement. That’s well-documented and there’s no dispute there. They aren’t charged with any of that conduct.”
