Southern Poverty Law Center indicted on fraud charges tied to paid informants

A federal grand jury has indicted the Southern Poverty Law Center on 11 counts, including wire and bank fraud, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche announced on Tuesday evening.

“In the Middle District of Alabama, a grand jury returned an 11-count indictment charging the Southern Poverty Law Center with six counts of wire fraud, four counts of bank fraud, and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering,” Blanche said in a press conference.

The Southern Poverty Law Center is a nonprofit group that says it fights for racial justice by working to dismantle white supremacy. Blanche said in the press conference that the group claims to do this “by reporting on extremist groups and conducting research to inform law enforcement groups with the goal of dismantling these groups.”

“As the indictment describes, the SPLC was not dismantling these groups; it was instead manufacturing the extremism it purports to