The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that the far-left Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) was charged with fraud and money laundering involving “violent extremist groups.”

In a press release from the Office of Public Affairs for the DOJ it was revealed that the SPLC was charged by an Alabama grand jury “with 11 counts of wire fraud, false statements to a federally insured bank, and conspiracy to commit concealment money laundering.”

According to the press release, an indictment says that “starting in the 1980s, the SPLC began operating a covert network of individuals who were either associated with violent and extremist groups, such as the Ku Klux Klan”:

According to the indictment starting in the 1980s, the SPLC began operating a covert network of individuals who were either associated with violent and extremist groups, such as the Ku Klux Klan, or who had infiltrated violent extremist groups at the SPLC’s direction. Unbeknownst to donors, some of their donated money was being used to fund the leaders and organizers of racist groups at the same time that the SPLC was denouncing the same groups on its website.

The SPLC also allegedly “funneled more than $3 million donated funds to individuals who were associated” with groups such as the National Socialist Movement, United Klans of America, and the Aryan Nations affiliated Sadistic Souls Motorcycle Club, between 2014 and 2023, according to the press release.

“The SPLC is manufacturing racism to justify its existence,” Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement. “Using donor money to allegedly profit off Klansmen cannot go unchecked.”

In a post on X, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Kash Patel shared that he and Blanche were “announcing an 11 count indictment” against the SPLC.

“The SPLC allegedly engaged in a massive fraud operation to deceive their donors, enrich themselves, and hide their deceptive operations from the public,” Patel said. “They 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.”