SPLC Bankrolled Klan Robes And ‘Cross-Burning’ Events, Feds Say

The Justice Department claimed Tuesday that the Southern Poverty Law Center paid Ku Klux Klan members to remain active in the Klan and reimbursed expenses relating to cross-burnings, Klan robes, and recruitment.

The allegations came in a superseding indictment filed in federal court in Alabama that expands on an April case accusing the SPLC of wire fraud, bank fraud, and a conspiracy to commit money laundering.

According to prosecutors, the SPLC paid more than $4.1 million to confidential informants embedded within white nationalist and extremist organizations between 2010 and 2023 while concealing the payments from donors through a network of shell entities and fraudulent bank accounts.

Two Ku Klux Klan members approached the SPLC in 2010 seeking to leave the organization because they feared for their safety, the indictment said. Rather than helping them exit, prosecutors say the SPLC paid the pair $1,200 per month plus expenses to remain active in the Klan and provide information.

SPLC Superseding Indictment June 2 2026 by Caleb Taylor

According to the indictment, the men used donor-funded reimbursements for activities that included recruiting new Klan members, producing white robes and hoods, publishing extremist literature, establishing new chapters, and organizing rallies.

The indictment further alleges the SPLC reimbursed expenses incurred for “cross-burning events, to include the wood and fuel used.”

Federal prosecutors say the payments were routed through a shell company called “Rare Books Warehouse” and other fictitious entities designed to conceal the true source of the money.

“The SPLC’s paid informants engaged in the active promotion of racist groups at the same time that the SPLC was denouncing the same groups on its website,” prosecutors said.

The SPLC has pleaded not guilty to all charges and denies wrongdoing. Attorney Abbe Lowell, representing the organization, said Tuesday that the new filing “changes nothing” and argued the group’s informant program helped prevent violence and save lives. 

The expanded indictment claims the SPLC maintained a covert network of paid sources inside extremist organizations dating back decades. Those sources allegedly included a Ku Klux Klan Imperial Wizard, a leader connected to the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, and members of other white nationalist groups.

According to prosecutors, one source linked to Unite the Right received approximately $270,000 from the SPLC between 2015 and 2023. Prosecutors allege another source received roughly $1.2 million, including payments connected to the theft of documents from the neo-Nazi National Alliance that were later used in SPLC reporting.

The Justice Department argues that the case is not about the practice of using informants itself but rather the alleged deception involved in obtaining donor money and concealing how those funds were distributed.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche previously accused the organization of funding the very extremism it claimed to combat. “To that end, they were doing the exact opposite of what they told their donors they were doing — not dismantling extremism but funding it,” Blanche said when the original indictment was announced.

The superseding indictment also highlights the organization’s financial growth during the period in question. Prosecutors noted that SPLC revenue increased from approximately $38.7 million in 2010 to more than $129 million in 2023, while net assets grew from roughly $238 million to nearly $787 million.

The case remains pending in federal court in the Middle District of Alabama.