Prosecutors accuse SPLC of diverting $4.1M to hate groups

Federal prosecutors have expanded their criminal case against the Southern Poverty Law Center, alleging the nonprofit organization secretly funneled millions in donor funds to support the activities of the same extremist groups it publicly claimed to combat. A superseding indictment, filed in federal court in Montgomery, Alabama, provides new details on what authorities describe as a long-running scheme to defraud donors and banks.

The Department of Justice now alleges the SPLC directed approximately $4.1 million in tax-exempt donations between 2014 and 2023 to individuals embedded within organizations including the Ku Klux Klan, neo-Nazi groups, and participants in the 2017 Unite the Right rally. Prosecutors contend the organization used a network of shell companies and fictitious entities to conceal these payments from donors who believed their contributions were being used to dismantle hate groups.

According to the indictment, the funds were used by informants, referred to as field sources, to recruit new members, host rallies, create new chapters, and purchase materials for cross-burnings and Ku Klux Klan robes and hoods. The document details specific instances where...