Southern Poverty Law Center Head Pleads Not Guilty to Federal Fraud Charges

The group is alleged to have funneled more than $3 million to leaders and organizers of various white supremacist and other extremist groups.

A protester holds an anti-KKK sign during a demonstration against white supremacy in Huntington Beach, Calif., on April 11, 2021. Apu Gomes/Getty Images

The head of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) pleaded not guilty on behalf of the group on May 7 in an Alabama courtroom to federal fraud charges accusing the group of defrauding donors and secretly paying millions of dollars to informants in various extremist groups.

Bryan Fair, SPLC’s interim president and CEO, appeared at a federal court in Montgomery, representing the group.