By The Associated PressPublished On 21 Apr 202621 Apr 2026The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) in the United States has been indicted on federal fraud charges after acting Attorney General Todd Blanche accused the civil rights group of improperly raising millions of dollars to pay informants to infiltrate the Ku Klux Klan and other far-right groups.The Department of Justice alleged that the law centre defrauded donors by using their money to fund the very ideology it claimed to be fighting.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of listIt pointed to payments of at least $3m between 2014 and 2023 to people affiliated with the Ku Klux Klan, the United Klans of America, the National Socialist Party of America and other far-right groups.“The SPLC was not dismantling these groups. It was instead manufacturing the extremism it purports to oppose by paying sources to stoke racial hatred,” Blanche said.The civil rights group faces charges including wire fraud, bank fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering. The Justice Department brought the case in Alabama, where the organisation is based.The indictment came shortly after the SPLC revealed the existence of a criminal investigation into its programme to pay informants to infiltrate far-right groups and gather information on their activities.The group said the programme was used to monitor threats of violence. The information was often shared with local and federal law enforcement, it added.SPLC CEO Bryan Fair said the organisation “will vigorously defend ourselves, our staff, and our work”.Blanche said the money was passed from the centre through two different bank accounts before being loaded onto prepaid cards to give to the members of the far …
