A federal grand jury in Montgomery, Alabama indicted the Southern Poverty Law Center on April 21, 2026, charging the civil rights nonprofit with 11 counts including wire fraud, false statements to a federally insured bank, and conspiracy to commit concealment money laundering.
According to the indictment, the SPLC allegedly operated a covert informant network dating back decades while publicly raising money to oppose the same extremist organizations some of its paid sources were tied to. Prosecutors allege the organization routed more than $3 million in donor funds to at least eight individuals between 2014 and 2023, including people affiliated with the Ku Klux Klan, Aryan Nations, the National Socialist Party of America, and other extremist groups.
The charges are allegations. The SPLC has not been convicted of any wrongdoing and is presumed innocent.
Prosecutors further allege the SPLC concealed the payments through bank accounts opened under fictitious business names, including “Fox Photography” and “Rare Books Warehouse,” and used prepaid cards and shell structures to move funds without disclosing the program to donors. According to the indictment, the objective of the scheme was to obtain donations through materially false representations and omissions about how donor money would be used.
THE CHARGES
- 6 counts — Wire fraud
- 4 counts — False statements to a federally insured bank
- 1 count — Conspiracy to commit concealment money laundering
- 2 forfeiture actions
Case: United States v. Southern Poverty Law Center, Inc.
Court: U.S. District Court, Middle District of Alabama
Case No.: 2:26-cr-00139
WHAT THE INDICTMENT ALLEGES
According to court filings, the SPLC internally referred to paid sources as “field sources” or “the Fs.” Prosecutors allege one informant received more than $1 million between 2014 and 2023 while affiliated with the neo-Nazi National Alliance. Another allegedly received more than $270,000 over eight years and helped coordinate transportation to the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, according to the indictment.
Prosecutors further allege the organization used fictitious entities and hidden payment structures to conceal the relationship between donor fundraising and the informant program. The indictment states donors were never told their money was being routed this way, and that the SPLC continued soliciting donations while omitting those facts.
SPLC RESPONSE
Interim CEO Bryan Fair called the charges false and said the organization was “unsurprised to be the latest organization targeted by this administration.” The SPLC said the confidential informant program, which it confirmed has been disbanded, was kept secret to protect sources whose lives were at risk.
The organization says the program provided intelligence to the FBI and local law enforcement, helped prevent violence, and saved lives. SPLC said it will “vigorously defend ourselves, our staff, and our work.”
The charges are serious and documented. So is the political context in which they were filed. Both things are true, and both belong in the record.