Justice Department indicts Southern Poverty Law Center, alleges multimillion-dollar fraud and payments to extremist figures

Acting Attorney General Barr announced that a grand jury in the Middle District of Alabama returned an 11-count indictment charging the Southern Poverty Law Center with six counts of wire fraud, four counts of bank fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering.

The indictment, Barr said, alleges the nonprofit solicited donations claiming to “dismantle violent extremist groups” but instead paid people affiliated with those groups and then produced work that purported to document the groups’ activities. "They used the fraudulently raised money by lying to their donor network, thousands of Americans, to go ahead and actually pay the leadership of these supposed violent extremist groups," Barr said.

DOJ officials said the indictment alleges payments to at least eight individuals between 2014 and 2023, including one individual tied to the 2017 Charlottesville "Unite the Right" rally who allegedly received approximately $270,000 over eight years; the department said at least $3 million was paid in total. The agency identified the affiliates of those paid individuals by group name during the announcement, including the Ku Klux Klan, United Klans of America, National Socialist Movement, an Aryan Nations–affiliated motorcycle club, the National Socialist Party of America and the American Front.

Officials described a financial concealment scheme in which money moved through sham bank accounts and was loaded onto prepaid cards to shield the funds’ source. DOJ said those layered transfers underlie the bank-fraud and money-laundering allegations as well as the wire-fraud counts.

When asked why the indictment names the organization and not individuals, DOJ said the grand jury returned an indictment against a single entity and that the investigation is ongoing; officials repeatedly declined to discuss facts beyond the indictment’s text. "The indictment speaks for itself," one official said, adding that whether future charges follow will depend on the ongoing investigation.

DOJ also framed the alleged conduct as inconsistent with requirements for 501(c)(3) nonprofits to be transparent with donors about how funds will be used. On bank-fraud allegations, the department pointed to alleged false statements made when creating fictitious entities and opening accounts—conduct prosecutors said could deceive financial institutions about who controlled the accounts.

The department declined to discuss how the investigation began or whether it had been paused at points in recent years, saying those operational details are not appropriate for public comment. Officials also noted related media reporting is the subject of litigation and refused to discuss matters beyond the four corners of the indictment.

The DOJ said the probe remains active and that more announcements could follow when grand juries return additional indictments or when investigations reach prosecutorial milestones.