by Ben Whedon
The Department of Justice this week unveiled a superseding indictment against the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), adding further allegations that the organization funded efforts to fabricate and expand extremist groups.
A federal grand jury in April approved charges against the organization for alleged wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and other offenses. At the time, the DOJ asserted that the SPLC was working to inflate extremism numbers and manufacture incidents to fuel its own operations.
FBI Director Kash Patel said in April the SPLC “allegedly engaged in a massive fraud operation to deceive their donors, enrich themselves, and hide their deceptive operations from the public.”
“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. That is illegal – and this is an ongoing investigation against all individuals involved,” he said.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in April the nonprofit “is manufacturing racism to justify its existence.”
“Using donor money to allegedly profit off Klansmen cannot go unchecked. This Department of Justice will hold the SPLC and every other fraudulent organization operating with the same deceptive playbook accountable. No entity is above the law,” he added.
The superseding indictment alleges that the organization used $4.1 million in tax-exempt funding to pay informants to infiltrate and grow extremist organizations. The indictment further alleges that the organization defrauded its donors by not informing them of these practices, CBS News reported.
The original indictment asserted that the SPLC had provided funds to the Ku Klux Klan, United Klans of America, Aryan Nations, and the Nationalist Socialist Party of American Nazis.
But the superseding indictment alleges that the SPLC used the funds to help their informants recruit members to the extremist groups, purchase materials for cross-burning, create new chapters of extremist groups, and otherwise inflate the influence of these organizations.
Abbe Lowell, the SPLC’s attorney, told CBS News that “[t]he SPLC did not lie to its donors, it did not mislead banks it did business with, and its informant program prevented violence and saved lives.”
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Ben Whedon is a reporter for Just the News. Zachery Schmidt is the digital editor of The Star News Network and contributed to this story.
Photo “Todd Blanche” by The United States Department of Justice.
