The US Department of Justice has indicted the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) on multiple fraud charges after an April indictment in Alabama, raising fresh concerns among traditionalist Catholics that the organisation’s widely cited “hate group” designations – long relied upon by federal and intelligence agencies, including the FBI – may have been tainted by financial misconduct and ideological bias.
On April 21, 2026, a federal grand jury in the Middle District of Alabama returned an 11-count indictment charging the Montgomery-based Southern Poverty Law Center with wire fraud, bank fraud, making false statements to a bank and conspiracy to commit money laundering. Prosecutors allege that, between 2014 and 2023, the SPLC secretly funnelled more than $3 million in donor funds to members and leaders of white supremacist and extremist groups – including figures linked to the Ku Klux Klan and the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville – while publicly presenting itself as their chief opponent.
