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The\u00a0Department of Justice<\/a>\u00a0on Tuesday announced a bombshell\u00a011-count fraud indictment<\/a>\u00a0accusing the\u00a0Southern Poverty Law Center<\/a>\u00a0of secretly funding leaders and organizers of\u00a0white supremacist<\/a>, racist and other hate groups that the civil rights group claimed to be battling.<\/p>\n \u201cThe SPLC\u2019s paid informants (\u2018field sources\u2019) engaged in the active promotion of racist groups at the same time time that the SPLC was denouncing the same groups on its website,\u201d alleges the indictment returned by a grand jury in the U.S. District Court in Montgomery, Alabama, on Tuesday.<\/p>\n The SPLC, which is a nonprofit civil rights group, is charged with six counts of wire fraud, four counts of bank fraud and one count of money laundering.<\/p>\n Between 2014 and 2023, the SPLC paid at least $3 million to eight individuals, some of whom were associated with the Ku Klux Klan, the United Klans of America, the National Socialist Party of America, the Aryan Nations-affiliated Sadistic Souls Motorcycle Club and the American Front, said\u00a0Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche<\/a>\u00a0at a press conference.<\/p>\n \u201cThe SPLC was not dismantling the groups,\u201d said Blanche, as\u00a0FBI Director Kash Patel<\/a>\u00a0stood at his side. \u201cIt was instead manufacturing the extremism it purports to oppose by paying sources to stoke racial hatred.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOne troubling example, is the SPLC was paying a member of the leadership group that planned the\u00a0Unite the Right protest in Charlottesville, Virginia<\/a>, that resulted in the death of one person, and injured dozens more,\u201d the acting attorney general said, noting that the indictment alleged that the group paid the person about $270,000 over the course of eight years.<\/p>\n The SPLC earlier Tuesday said it was the subject of a criminal probe by the DOJ, and that the focus of the probe appeared to be on the group\u2019s prior use of paid, confidential informants \u201cto gather credible intelligence on extremely violent groups.\u201d<\/p>\n The group\u2019s interim CEO, Bryan Fair, in a statement responding to Blanche\u2019s press conference, said, \u201cWe are outraged by the false allegations levied against SPLC \u2014 an organization that for 55 years has stood as a beacon of hope fighting white supremacy and various forms of injustice to create a multi-racial democracy where we can all live and thrive.<\/p>\n \u201cTaking 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. To be clear, this program saved lives,\u201d Fair said.<\/p>\n \u201cSPLC will vigorously defend ourselves, our staff and our work; we will continue to fight hate; and we will continue to envision and create a safer and more just world,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n FBI Director Patel in October said the FBI would\u00a0sever ties with the SPLC<\/a>, calling it a \u201cpartisan smear machine.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n