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The Montgomery-based Southern Poverty Law Center was indicted this week on federal fraud charges stemming from a years-long covert paid informant program, which Justice Department officials said allocated millions of dollars in donations to a network of informants affiliated with or closely tied to White supremacist and neo-Nazi groups.
The 11-count indictment accuses the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) of wire fraud, false statements to a federally insured bank, and conspiracy to commit concealment money laundering.
According to the Justice Department, the SPLC sent some $3 million to its paid informants between 2014 and 2023 — including persons affiliated with the United Klans of America, the National Socialist Party of America, and the Aryan Nations-linked “Sadistic Souls Motorcycle Club,” among others.
Senior Trump administration officials took aim at the covert paid informant program, which funneled outside donations, at least in part, to informants affiliated with the same extremist groups the SPLC was founded decades earlier to oppose.
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”As the indictment describes, the SPLC was not dismantling these groups,” Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told reporters Tuesday at a press conference.
“It was instead manufacturing the extremism it purports to oppose by paying sources to stoke racial hatred.”
The SPLC’s paid informant program funded individuals with ties to the Ku Klux Klan, the National Socialist Party of America, and others — including a member of an online “leadership chat group” that helped plan the deadly “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, officials said.
Here are the top five most eye-popping paid informants revealed in this week’s indictment.
1. The Charlottesville coordinator
Among the paid informants identified in the indictment is a member of an online “leadership chat group” that Blanche said helped plan the deadly 2017 “Unite the Right” event in Charlottesville, Virginia.
The individual, referred to only as “F-37,” attended the event at the direction of the SPLC and was paid more than $270,000 for his or her work as an informant between 2015 and 2023, according to the indictment.
The indictment alleges that the individual shared “racist social media posts and helped organize transportation to events” associated with the deadly rally.
The news that the informant helped coordinate logistics, at least in some small part, for the deadly rally while under SPLC supervision is significant, especially given that the aftermath of the event prompted a new influx of donations to the nonprofit.
“They lied to their donors, vowing to dismantle violent extremist groups, and actually turned around and paid the leaders of these very extremist groups — even utilizing the funds to have these groups facilitate the commission of state and federal crimes,” FBI Director Kash Patel said. “That is illegal — and this is an ongoing investigation against all individuals involved.”
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2. A million-dollar burglar
One longtime member of the National Alliance, a White supremacist group tied to multiple violent attacks, profited handsomely from the SPLC in his role as a paid informant.
According to the indictment, SPLC paid the National Alliance member more than $1 million over a nine-year period for his role, which included clandestine activities such as breaking into the group’s headquarters to steal some 25 boxes of documents, which he photocopied and distributed to the SPLC.
The group appears to have later used those documents to create a report about the National Alliance.
After the stolen documents were utilized partly in public, SPLC paid another National Alliance member $6,000 to falsely take responsibility for the theft.
The National Alliance and the writings of its founder have been closely associated with a litany of violent attacks since the 1980s, including a 1999 multi-state shooting spree targeting minorities and Jewish Americans, and the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.
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3. The ‘extremist file’ chairman
The SPLC also shelled out more than $140,000 to a paid informant who chaired the National Alliance neo-Nazi group.
The indictment accuses the SPLC of funneling tens of thousands of dollars to the individual between 2016 and 2023.
At least some of the payments occurred at the same time the National Alliance chairman himself was listed on the SPLC’s website, as part of its public “Extremist File” website — a striking and somewhat ironic fact, given that the site was warning the public about how dangerous the individual was.
4. Klan ‘Imperial Wizard’
Among the paid informants was an “Imperial Wizard” of The United Klans of America, a White supremacist group that the SPLC has linked to the 1963 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama, that killed four young girls and injured more than a dozen others.
Martin Luther King Jr. described the bombing, which exploded 19 sticks of pre-laid dynamite beneath the steps of a local church, as “one of the most vicious and tragic crimes ever perpetrated against humanity.” It was unclear how much the paid informant received from the SPLC.
Separately, SPLC also funneled money to a Ku Klux Klan member and spouse of an “Exalted Cyclops” — or a local Klan leader tasked with overseeing membership, organizing meetings, and directing activities.
According to the indictment, the informant’s link to the SPLC became known during the KKK chapter’s application to partake in the “Adopt-A-Highway” program, resulting in the discovery of more than $3,500 in known payments from the SPLC.
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5. $300K ‘Sadistic Souls’ biker
During the six-year period between 2014 and 2020, the SPLC sent a staggering $300,000 to one paid informant, F-27, who was an officer in both the National Socialist Movement group and the Aryan Nations-affiliated Sadistic Souls Motorcycle Club.
The SPLC also sent some $160,000 to other extremist groups, including the former Grand Wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.
No individuals were named in the indictment, though Blanche noted during a press conference Tuesday that the investigation is ongoing.
According to federal prosecutors, the SPLC’s paid informant program began in the 1980s, shortly after its founding in the 1970s, and allegedly relied on a series of bank accounts set up for fictitious entities and used to funnel the covert payments to informants.
“They’re required to under the laws associated with a nonprofit to have certain transparency and honesty in what they’re telling donors they’re going to spend money on and what their mission statement is and what they’re raising money doing,” Blanche said.
The news comes as the SPLC has seen an increase in public support in recent years — including a groundswell of donations following the 2017 Unite the Right rally, and from prominent donors including George Clooney and Apple CEO Tim Cook.
“Donors gave their money believing they were supporting the fight against violent extremism,” Kevin Davidson, the acting U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Alabama, said in a statement.
“As alleged, the SPLC instead diverted a portion of those funds to benefit individuals and groups they claimed to oppose,” Davidson added.
“That kind of deception undermines public trust and social cohesion.”
A spokesperson for the Southern Poverty Law Center told Fox News Digital earlier this week they are reviewing the indictment. The group has denied all allegations of wrongdoing.
“Taking on violent hate and extremist groups is among the most dangerous work there is, and we believe it is also among the most important work we do,” interim SPLC president Bryan Fair said this week in a statement. “The actions by the DOJ will not shake our resolve to fight for justice and ensure the promise of the Civil Rights Movement becomes a reality for all.”
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The spokesperson for the SPLC defended its work monitoring White supremacist groups and other violent extremist organizations — including via the paid informant program — telling Fox News Digital that their use has “saved lives.”
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