The Southern Poverty Law Center again has entered not guilty pleas to criminal charges it defrauded donors who wanted to fight racism and violence by sending millions of dollars to informants in groups that engaged in racism and violence.
The fresh arraignment of the organization under a new superseding indictment took place via videoconference before Montgomery, Alabama-based U.S. Magistrate Judge Kelly F. Pate, reported the Epoch Times.
The charges originally came from FBI Director Kash Patel and acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche in April, and charged wire fraud, false statements to a federally insured bank, conspiracy to commit money laundering.
The report explained the SPLC allegedly surreptitiously gave more than $4.1 million in donated funds to leaders of racist groups, including the Ku Klux Klan, the Aryan Nation, and the National Alliance.
The claims by the government are that the SPLC, which made its name by suing KKK organizations into bankruptcy and now runs a “hate map” labeling those whose beliefs it doesn’t tolerate as haters, sent money from donors to bank accounts of fake entities, then used the funds to give to alleged informants in racist groups it claimed to oppose.
The report pointed out that one of the informents allegedly help set up the “Unite the Right” protest in 2017 ni Charlottesville, Virginia, which turned deadly.
SPLC chief Bryan Fair appeared in person in May to plead not guilty to the charges, and this week a lawyer appeared by videoconference to do the same to the charges in a superseding indictment.
The Epoch Times explained, “The new indictment provides additional details such as a claim that funds were used by recipients for buying materials for cross burnings and Ku Klux Klan robes and hoods.”
The SPLC claims the case is vindictive prosecution and wants it dimissed.
According to a recent IRS filing, the group took in nearly $340 million in 2023, and had assets of more than $822 million.
The FBI previously claimed it got “intelligence” on hate groups from the SPLC, but severed any affiliation in 2025 after it listed assassinated conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s group among haters.
