Justice Department Unleashes New Indictment on Southern Poverty Law Center Over Donor Fund Misuse

The Justice Department has dropped a bombshell with a superseding indictment against the Southern Poverty Law Center, revealing shocking allegations about the misuse of donor funds to pay informants embedded in hate groups.

This indictment, returned by a grand jury in the Middle District of Alabama, accuses the SPLC of misappropriating $4.1 million in tax-exempt funds. These funds allegedly financed informants who engaged in recruiting new members and procuring materials for cross burnings, including Ku Klux Klan robes and hoods. The DOJ claims these payments were made without informing donors, constituting fraud against both contributors and banks.

No new charges or defendants appear in this latest indictment; it mirrors the original version from April. The SPLC still faces 11 counts, including wire fraud, bank fraud, and conspiracy to commit money laundering. Prosecutors allege the organization duped its donors and banks by creating shell accounts to divert money to insiders linked to the very hate groups it claims to combat.

The Southern Poverty Law Center has pleaded not guilty to these charges and is pushing for the case's dismissal, arguing it is a target of vindictive prosecution.

Abbe Lowell, the SPLC's attorney, slammed the new indictment as an attempt to patch up flaws in the initial charges, asserting that it changes nothing. He stated, "The SPLC did not lie to its donors, it did not mislead banks it did business with, and its informant program prevented violence and saved lives."

As of Tuesday night, a public copy of the superseding indictment was not available on the docket, and the version shared by the Justice Department was not finalized.

Lowell accused the Justice Department of leaking the indictment to the media before it was officially unsealed, calling it "another example of the government's troubling and unusual handling of this case." He indicated that the SPLC's legal team would address these irregularities in court.

The new indictment appears to rectify problematic language from the previous version. Former prosecutors noted that the earlier indictment claimed an SPLC employee made "false or misleading statements" when opening bank accounts. However, a Supreme Court ruling last year clarified that only false statements are criminal under the bank fraud statute, not misleading ones. This misstep led to predictions that the DOJ would need to return to the grand jury for corrections.

The revised indictment omits "or misleading" when referencing statements made to banks. Additionally, it includes details about SPLC's revenue from public tax filings that were absent from the original indictment.