“The US Justice Department has charged the anti-racist Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) with wire fraud over its funneling of more than $3 million to white supremacist and extremist groups, including the organizers of the deadly ‘Unite the Right’ Charlottesville rally in 2017.”

“In an indictment handed down by a grand jury in Alabama on Tuesday, the SPLC was charged with 11 counts of wire fraud, false statements to a federally insured bank, and conspiracy to commit money laundering.”

“According to the Justice Department and the FBI, the organization misled donors by soliciting money to “fight” extremists, then covertly funneling the money to the leaders of these same extremist groups.”

“Founded as a civil rights law firm in 1971, the SPLC has grown into one of the US’ leading liberal NGOs.”

“The SPLC’s more recent activities have proven controversial: the organization was accused of anti-white racism when a senior staffer, Mark Potok, was filmed with a ‘countdown clock’ to whites becoming a minority in the US taped to his desk; and the SPLC’s listing of Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA as a “case study” in “hate and extremism” led the FBI to cut its ties with the center after Kirk’s assassination last year.”

“According to the indictment, donors were told that their money would be used to help “dismantle” the extremist groups listed in the SPLC’s database.”

“What they weren’t told was that this money was actually being funneled to these groups via fictitious business entities, and that the SPLC would in some cases order the groups to continue stoking racial hatred.”