The U.S. Justice Department indicted the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) on charges that the civil-rights organization fraudulently paid informants inside extremist groups and concealed those payments with bank accounts opened for nonexistent companies. 

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche announced the 11-count indictment at a news conference Tuesday, saying investigators concluded the Alabama-based group had been “manufacturing the extremism it purports to oppose by paying sources to stoke racial hatred.” The indictment includes six counts of wire fraud, four counts of making false statements to a federally insured bank, and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. 

According to the indictment, SPLC employees opened accounts at two FDIC-insured banks in the names of sham entities, including “Center Investigative Agency,” “Fox Photography,” “North West Technologies,” “Tech Writers Group,” and “Rare Books Warehouse,” even though the entities were not incorporated, had no bona fide employees, and conducted no real business. 

Prosecutors say false ownership and business information was submitted to the banks to establish the accounts. 

Donor funds were first transferred from SPLC’s operating account at one bank into accounts linked to the fictitious entities, then routed onward to paid field sources, according to the indictment. After one bank opened an internal investigation in 2020 and closed several accounts, the organization allegedly shifted to ACH payments and masked the transactions with memo descriptions such as “Rarebooks050” and “PR3ebookCON050.” 

The indictment also cites six wire transfers dated April 25, 2023, including transfers from SPLC’s operating account to accounts controlled by paid sources or their associates, as part of what prosecutors allege was a scheme to conceal the source, ownership, and control of donor funds.

The donor funds were used to pay leaders and organizers of racist groups, including the Ku Klux Klan, Aryan Nation, and National Alliance, according to the indictment.

SPLC’s interim chief executive Bryan Fair told NBC News that the organization had not done anything wrong and that he was “outraged by the false allegations.” 

“Taking on violent hate and extremist groups is among the most dangerous work there is, and we believe it is also among the most important work we do,” Fair said, according to NBC. 

Read the indictment here