US charges anti-extremism organisation over payments to informants in hate groups

US officials have announced fraud charges against the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), a civil rights group that tracks extremist organisations and played a prominent role in confronting the Ku Klux Klan (KKK). In a news conference on Tuesday, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche accused the non-profit of secretly funding the very groups that it...

US officials have announced fraud charges against the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), a civil rights group that tracks extremist organisations and played a prominent role in confronting the Ku Klux Klan (KKK).

In a news conference on Tuesday, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche accused the non-profit of secretly funding the very groups that it says it opposes, through paying informants who infiltrated them - including within the KKK.

An indictment charges the SPLC with six counts of wire fraud, four counts of bank fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering.

The organisation's president has said they would "vigorously defend ourselves, our staff, and our work".