In a development that underscores long-standing concerns about the Southern Poverty Law Center’s (SPLC) tactics and transparency, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Tuesday that a federal grand jury in Montgomery, Ala., has indicted the SPLC on 11 counts of wire fraud, false statements to a federally insured bank, and conspiracy to commit concealment money laundering.
According to the DOJ, between 2014 and 2023 the SPLC secretly funneled more than $3 million in donated funds to individuals associated with violent extremist organizations.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, speaking to Washington reporters, stated: “The SPLC is manufacturing racism to justify its existence. Using donor money to allegedly profit off Klansmen cannot go unchecked.”
SPLC donations went to organizations including the Ku Klux Klan, United Klans of America, Unite the Right, National Alliance, National Socialist Movement, Aryan Nations-affiliated Sadistic Souls Motorcycle Club, National Socialist Party of America (American Nazi Party), and American Front. The organization allegedly used shell accounts, fictitious entities, and prepaid cards to disguise these payments while publicly denouncing the very groups it was funding.
This bombshell comes as no surprise to those who have followed the SPLC’s pattern of inflammatory rhetoric and selective enforcement. For years, the SPLC has wrongfully branded many mainstream conservative and Christian organizations as “hate groups” on its widely cited “Hate Map.” That label has been weaponized by corporations, Big Tech platforms, and even government entities to justify discrimination, deplatforming, and reputational damage.
FBI Director Kash Patel, who led the probe along with the IRS Criminal Investigation Division, added that the SPLC “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.
The significance of these charges reaches far beyond financial misconduct. If the federal allegations are true, the scandal is not merely one of institutional corruption, but of an organization that helped stigmatize its ideological opponents while allegedly concealing serious misconduct within its own operations.
Critics have long argued the SPLC inflates its “hate group” counts, often lumping in peaceful pro-family ministries with actual Klansmen, to stoke donor panic and maintain its multi-hundred-million-dollar endowment. The latest revelations lend credence to those concerns.
NRB has chronicled these abuses in detail. In one case, the D. James Kennedy Ministries appealed a defamation lawsuit against the SPLC all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court after being labeled a hate group—not for anything resembling racial animus or extremist ideology, but for affirming orthodox biblical views on marriage and sexuality. Another NRB report exposed how Big Tech payment processor MobileCause pressured clients to drop FRC over the SPLC’s designation—only for MobileCause to abruptly cancel FRC’s sponsorship of a major pre-election broadcast event just one hour before airtime. A third report detailed ongoing efforts to force MobileCause and similar companies to stop relying on the SPLC’s discredited list altogether.
The new federal charges paint a picture of hypocrisy on a grander scale. While the SPLC raised hundreds of millions from donors promising to “dismantle white supremacy,” it was allegedly paying insiders within the very movements it claimed to oppose. The DOJ alleges the scheme dates back to the 1980s but accelerated from 2014–2023, with payments routed through covert bank accounts to conceal their true purpose from both donors and financial institutions.
SPLC interim CEO Bryan Fair issued a statement calling the allegations “false” and accusing the Trump administration of “weaponizing” the DOJ. “For 55 years, the Southern Poverty Law Center has stood as a beacon of hope fighting white supremacy,” Fair said. He described the now-discontinued paid-informant program as essential work that “saved lives” and vowed the organization would “vigorously defend ourselves, our staff and our work.” Fair added that the group “will not be intimidated into silence or contrition.”
Religious broadcasters have repeatedly found themselves in the SPLC’s crosshairs, with the “Hate Map” cited by advertisers, payment processors, social-media gatekeepers, and even some government agencies as justification for restricting content, severing partnerships, or denying access to distribution channels. A single designation can trigger lost sponsorship revenue, deplatforming, or exclusion from app stores and payment gateways—effectively muzzling biblical teaching on marriage, human sexuality, the sanctity of life, and religious liberty.
For NRB members, whose mission is to proclaim the Gospel and defend the First Amendment rights of faith-based communicators, the indictment exposes the fragility of relying on an unaccountable actor whose own methods are now under federal scrutiny. It strengthens the case for challenging these labels in court, corporate boardrooms, and policy circles, while underscoring NRB’s long-standing call for transparency and accountability.
“This is a watershed moment exposing the SPLC’s deep hypocrisy. For years, the SPLC has profited by labeling Christian ministries and communicators as ‘hate groups’ while allegedly funneling donor dollars to the very extremists it claims to oppose,” said NRB President & CEO Troy A. Miller in a statement. “These charges confirm what NRB members have long experienced: the SPLC’s designations are not tools for justice, but weapons to silence biblical truth and undermine religious liberty. We demand accountability, and we will continue fighting to ensure faith-based voices are not censored or defamed by discredited actors.”
NRB will continue to monitor how the SPLC’s credibility crisis affects the broader religious liberty landscape. Faith-based broadcasters and ministries targeted by the SPLC’s designations deserve transparency and accountability from those who profit by unjustly labeling them extremists.
The Southern Poverty Law Center’s days of unchecked influence may finally be numbered. Donors, corporations, and government agencies that have relied on its “Hate Map” should take note. When the self-proclaimed watchdog is itself under federal indictment for fraud, it is time to question everything it has built its empire upon.
Bethany Miller is the Director of Communications at NRB.