The SPLC Indictment
What the Charges Actually Say
On April 21, 2026, a federal grand jury in Montgomery, Alabama returned an 11-count criminal indictment against the Southern Poverty Law Center. The charges included six counts of wire fraud, four counts of false statements to a federally insured bank, and one count of conspiracy to commit concealment money laundering.
The announcement was made jointly by Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and FBI Director Kash Patel at a press conference at the Department of Justice in Washington.
The case was assigned to U.S. District Judge Emily Marks in the Middle District of Alabama. Marks was nominated to the bench by President Trump in 2018. Alongside the criminal indictment, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Alabama filed two separate civil forfeiture actions seeking to recover what prosecutors allege were proceeds of the fraud scheme. The FBI investigated the case with assistance from IRS Criminal Investigation.
Acting U.S. Attorney Kevin Davidson, who has served as a career federal prosecutor since 2012, laid out the government’s central argument: “Donors gave their money believing they were supporting the fight against violent extremism. As alleged, the SPLC instead diverted a portion of those funds to benefit individuals and groups they claimed to oppose.”
What the SPLC Is
The Southern Poverty Law Center was founded in 1971 in Montgomery, Alabama by Morris Dees, Joseph Levin Jr., and civil rights leader Julian Bond. It built its early reputation through civil litigation against the Ku Klux Klan, winning multi-million dollar judgments that effectively bankrupted several KKK chapters.
Over the decades, the organization expanded well beyond litigation. Starting in 1990, it began publishing an annual census of what it called “hate groups” operating across the United States. That list grew to become the SPLC’s most visible and influential product. By 2024, it tracked more than 1,300 organizations and extremist groups.
Government agencies, tech platforms, media outlets, and nonprofits across the country came to rely on SPLC designations as a benchmark for identifying domestic extremism. The organization’s stated mission during the period covered by the indictment was to be a “catalyst for racial justice in the South and beyond, working in partnership with communities to dismantle white supremacy, strengthen intersectional movements, and advance the human rights of all people.”
Its financial position reflected its prominence. As of October 2024, the SPLC reported $786.7 million in net assets and a $738 million endowment, according to its audited financial statements. That endowment more than doubled between 2016 and 2024. For comparison, Samford University, the largest private university in Alabama with more than 6,000 students, reported $547.8 million in total net assets that same year.
The Program the Indictment Describes
According to the indictment, the SPLC’s covert informant network began operating in the 1980s. Inside the organization, members of this network were referred to as “field sources,” or simply “the Fs.”
The program involved paying individuals who were either already members of violent extremist groups or who had infiltrated those groups at the SPLC’s direction. Prosecutors allege that between 2014 and 2023, the SPLC paid at least eight informants more than $3 million in total. The groups those informants were affiliated with included the Ku Klux Klan, the United Klans of America, the Aryan Nations, the Aryan Nations-affiliated Sadistic Souls Motorcycle Club, the National Alliance, the National Socialist Movement, the National Socialist Party of America, and the American Front.
To conceal the payments, the SPLC allegedly opened bank accounts under the names of at least five fictitious entities that had no actual employees or legitimate business operations. Those entities included “Fox Photography,” “Rare Books Warehouse,” and “Center Investigative Agency.” From those accounts, money was transferred to prepaid cards and distributed to informants.
“They set up shell companies and entities around America so that the financial institutions that we rely on as everyday Americans were deceived into believing that money was not coming from the Southern Poverty Law Center,” Patel said at the press conference.
The indictment alleges that the SPLC never disclosed the existence of the informant program to donors, and that solicitations for donations made no mention of the payments.
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