On June 3, a federal grand jury in the Middle District of Alabama returned asuperseding indictmentagainst theSouthern Poverty LawCenter, a second, expanded set of charges building on anoriginal April 21 indictment, alleging that $4.1 million intax-exempt fundspaid informants inside extremist organizations who then recruited new members and purchased materials for cross burnings andKu Klux Klanrobes and hoods.
The new charges do not target the general practice of paying informants but the DOJ’s allegation that the SPLC made these payments without disclosing them to donors and while defrauding banks.
The superseding indictment retains the original 11 counts, six of wire fraud, four of making false statements to a federally insured bank, and one of conspiracy to commit concealment money laundering, while expanding the alleged misconduct to include an SPLC employee’s knowledge that donor money purchased KKK garments, fuel, and wood for cross burnings. The indictment also notes the organization’srevenue and net assetsgrew more than 200% between 2010 and 2023.
The original11-count indictment, announced April 21 by Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche alongside FBI Director Kash Patel, alleged the SPLC secretly funneled more than $3 million in donor funds between 2014 and 2023 to at least nine informantsembedded in groupsincluding the Ku Klux Klan, the National Socialist Movement, the Aryan Nations-affiliated Sadistic Souls Motorcycle Club, and a participant in the planning of the 2017 Charlottesville Unite the Right rally.
Prosecutors alleged the informants, known internally as “field sources” or “the Fs,” were paid through shell accounts while the SPLC publicly presented itself as working to dismantle those same groups. The SPLC pleaded not guilty and called the allegations false.
The indictment identifies eight informants by designation and specifies payments by group. One informant, F-9, was affiliated with theneo-Nazi National Allianceand received more than $1 million over nine years while fundraising for the organization. Prosecutors allege F-9 also broke into the National Alliance’s headquarters in 2014, stealing 25 boxes of documents the SPLC used in a published report, then paid a secondNational Alliance member$6,000 to falsely claim responsibility for the theft.
A second informant, F-37, was a member of the online leadership chat that planned the 2017 Charlottesville Unite the Right rally. According to the indictment, he attended the rally at the SPLC’s direction, made racist social media posts, and coordinated transportation for attendees. Between 2015 and 2023, he receivedmore than $270,000.
Additional payments went to members of other extremist organizations. Prosecutors allege that approximately $300,000 was paid to individuals affiliated with theAryan Nations. Payments also went to the United Klans of America, including itsImperial Wizard. The national president of the American Front, a skinhead coalition, received approximately$19,000. He was a convicted felon for cross-burning.
The indictment does not include specific examples of how informant money was used to commit crimes, a gapCNNnoted legal experts say could complicate securing a conviction.
Theinformant programdates to the 1980s, when the SPLC began recruiting individuals embedded in or directed into white supremacist groups to gather intelligence. Payments were routed through shell accounts at fictitious entities including “Fox Photography” and“Rare Books Warehouse”to conceal their purpose. The SPLC says the program produced concrete law enforcement results.
Source: The Gateway Pundit
