Southern Poverty Law Center Faces Federal Fraud Charges as Allies Rally in Support

The Department of Justice has charged the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) with fraud, accusing the civil rights organization of funneling over $3 million to various extremist groups while misleading donors about how their contributions were being used.

Left-wing nonprofits have quickly rallied behind the SPLC, with more than one hundred organizations expressing solidarity with the embattled nonprofit. The National Association of Social Workers (NASW) urged supporters to “stand with and support The Southern Poverty Law Center until the legal travails are complete — with full confidence that SPLC will be vindicated.”

Similarly, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) issued a statement defending the SPLC, describing the federal investigation as “a transparently political attack on the rule of law meant to undermine the vital role civil rights groups play in countering hate groups.”

According to federal authorities, the SPLC, which is known for tracking hate groups and providing civil rights litigation, allegedly directed millions in payments to members of violent extremist organizations including the Ku Klux Klan, Aryan Nations, and the National Socialist Party of America (American Nazi Party).

FBI Director Kash Patel delivered a scathing assessment of the organization’s actions: “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.”

The SPLC, which reported approximately $129 million in total revenue for fiscal year 2024 and nearly $800 million in total assets, has defended its actions, claiming the payments were made to informants who provided critical intelligence about extremist groups and their activities.

“These individuals risked their lives to infiltrate and inform on the activities of our nation’s most radical and violent extremist groups,” SPLC Interim President and CEO Bryan Fair said in a video statement. “When we began working with informants, we were living in the shadow of the height of the civil rights movement, which had seen bombings at churches, state-sponsored violence against demonstrators, and the murders of activists that went unanswered by the justice system.”

However, the indictment alleges more troubling activities, including claims that one alleged informant who received $270,000 shared “racist social media posts” under SPLC supervision. The document also states that the nonprofit “helped organize transportation to events” during the deadly 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

The indictment raises serious concerns about whether the SPLC misled donors regarding how their contributions were being utilized. Former federal prosecutor Andrew Cherkasky noted that “the wire fraud counts rest on specific, quoted solicitations telling donors their money would be used to ‘dismantle’ violent extremist groups, paired with the material omission that more than three million dollars flowed to the leaders, fundraisers, and organizers of those very same groups.”

While paying informants is not illegal in itself, Cherkasky explained that a nonprofit can be “criminally liable for the acts of its agents committed within the scope of their duties and for the organization’s benefit.” He pointed to allegations that “a high-level SPLC employee coordinated payment for documents stolen by a paid source who twice burglarized an extremist group’s headquarters, and a different source was paid six thousand dollars to falsely confess to the theft.”

This is not the first time the SPLC has faced scrutiny regarding its financial practices. In 1994, the Montgomery Advertiser published an investigative series examining the nonprofit’s finances, finding that it operated more like a business or corporation with high salaries and fundraising that significantly exceeded expenditures. The series was a finalist for the 1995 Pulitzer Prize in Explanatory Journalism.

More recently, Charity Watch gave the SPLC an “F” rating in May 2025 “due to it having six years’ worth of available assets in reserve.” The organization’s former CEO, Margaret Huang, who resigned last summer, reportedly earned an annual salary of $522,000.

As the investigation continues, the charges could potentially lead to the loss of SPLC’s tax-exempt status, civil liability to victims, and fiduciary exposure for directors and officers.