SPLC indicted for allegedly using donor funds to pay informants infiltrating extremist groups

U.S. prosecutors indicted the Southern Poverty Law Center on federal wire, bank fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering charges, alleging the charity used donor funds to pay confidential informants infiltrating extremist groups without disclosing these payments to donors or authorities; the indictment notes at least $3 million in payments from 2014–2023 to informants linked to groups like the Ku Klux Klan and Aryan Nations. SPLC says the payments funded intelligence work to monitor threats and that information was shared with law enforcement, while legal experts say the case centers on the alleged use of funds rather than ordinary fraud and may hinge on proving deliberate deceit about purposes of the payments.