Top Podcasts on SPLC Fraud and Extremism

“I think the right was correct that it was a very powerful tool. I mean, they have the extremist files. And I think like, you know, to give some credit here, is it fair to have one big list that includes someone like James Lindsay, who's like a Twitter commentator, who's a sort of anti-DEI activist, with someone who's the exalted cyclops of a Ku Klux Klan chapter? Right. Probably not.”

“The Southern Poverty Law Center has raised money for decades claiming to dismantle white supremacy, but it funneled millions of dollars. Let me repeat that. Millions of dollars to white nationalist groups, including the Ku Klux Klan, according to the federal indictment handed down Tuesday. The SPLC claims it was funding informants inside the extremist groups. While the SPLC, quote, purports to fight white supremacy and racial hatred, acting attorney general Todd Blanche said in a press conference, quote, the SPLC was not dismantling those groups. It was instead manufacturing the extremism it purports to oppose.”

“Southern Poverty Law Center ran a methodical calculated scheme to defraud their donor base of $3 million and lied to them and used an illicit banking structure system to create shell companies to hide their money and who it was being sent to specifically for the reason to sow discord and hate into our society. He contended that the indictment against the SPLC claims the organization funded at least eight hate groups that it was supposedly wanted to eliminate.”

“"This lawsuit, as we have all hinted, was not based on discovering the commission of a crime and then trying to prosecute that crime. This was done in an effort to target and intimidate a civil rights group that has been doing yeoman's work in targeting and dismantling hate groups in America."”

“The Justice Department's indictment against the Southern Poverty Law Center may contain serious legal defects that could lead to a full or partial dismissal because it struggles to articulate the elements of the alleged crimes, former federal prosecutors told CBS News. Legal experts say it's not clear exactly how the SPLC's statements to donors represent material falsehoods or omissions, or why its past use of paid informants would run counter to its mission of dismantling white supremacist groups.”

“Well, finally this week, the DOJ announced that they are under federal indictment. And I want to be really careful here because I got a million axes to grind with these guys. But I want to stay focused on what the government said they did. A $3 million fraud scheme. What they did was they routed money under fake names, opening fake bank accounts, hiding payments from donors, and cooking the books while they preached morality to everybody else.”

“The strange thing about the Southern Poverty Law Center is then they've been funding the people that they say are their enemies. And so now they're under investigation for a fraudulent front. It started out as a good grassroots organization years ago, but now it's utterly corrupt. Every word in that title is misleading. Southern. No, it's not just Southern. It's all across the United States.”

“"I've known about their shenanigans for years, and I've had many clients over the years, nonprofit organizations... who got onto their hate map and were characterized as hateful agents and entities. And at the end of the story... they say that their purpose in life is to get rid of white supremacy... when in fact, we now know they were creating the very thing that they claimed to be fighting against."”

“"The thing is, is you can make jokes, but that probably happened. Because we see in the indictment that someone who was involved in planning the Unite the Right rally was making, allegedly, was making far-right posts under the oversight of the SPLC. So the SPLC very well may have told someone, say it to blend in, kid. Say it."”

“It's as much an information operation as it is a criminal indictment. It may be even more of an information operation. I mean, and what's going on here. So the Southern Poverty Law Center had this informant program. And we don't know a lot of the details about these informants. But they paid people extremists in extremist groups for intelligence about these extremist groups.”

“Putting aside the wire fraud portion of it and the deep corruption of what they were doing, does the person who donated to them under false pretenses have any recourse with them? Also, all those donors who got duped do you know well well they might i i i'm not sure i mean i i'd much more be worried about going to federal prison though right now it's only the organization itself has criminal charges but you look at that return on investment they couldn't have done better if they invested in tesla in 2013 i mean holy cow.”