The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has been charged with fraud for allegedly secretly funneling more than $3 million to violent extremist groups including the Klu Klux Klan (KKK). 

Located in Montgomery, Alabama, the left-wing non-profit has been accused by the Department of Justice (DoJ) of executing a shadowy scheme from 2014 until 2023.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said the center improperly paid informants to infiltrate extremist groups without disclosing the payments to donors. 

However, the center's chief executive, Bryan Fair, said payments were only made to confidential informants in order to monitor threats of violence from extremist groups. 

He said the information the center received was frequently shared with the FBI and other law enforcement agencies, and that it helps save lives.

'We are outraged by the false allegations levied against SPLC,' Fair said.

The SPLC was launched in 1971 to combat discrimination in the aftermath of Jim Crow-era segregation and it now aims to further the civil rights movement. 

Fair's organization specializes in filing civil suits for monetary damages on behalf of victims of hate group violence, with a history of targeting the KKK. 

As part of its agenda, the SPLC tracks extremist groups, white supremacists and anti-government militias. It publishes an annual 'hate map' locating each one. 

However, the DoJ has alleged that the civil rights group defrauded donors by using their money to fund the same extremism that it claimed to be fighting. 

On Tuesday, a grand jury in the Middle District of Alabama returned an 11-count indictment charging the SPLC with six counts of wire fraud, four counts of bank fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. 

According to the indictment, payments of at least $3 million went to informants affiliated with the KKK, the Aryan Nations, the National Socialist Party of America and other groups between 2014 and 2023.

Fair said any payments made to extremists were used to monitor threats of violence, adding that some elements of the program was kept quiet to protect the safety of informants.

The non-profit is primarily funded through donor contributions. It received just under $732 million as of last October, according to the center.

Its 'Intelligence Project' has grown over the years, and the organization has faced criticism for some of the groups it has added to the tracker. 

Conservatives have said adding some groups unfairly maligns them because of their viewpoints.