CASA, which previously challenged SPLC’s 501(c)(3) status, acts swiftly on new federal charges alleging $3 million+ funneled to violent extremist groups

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Center to Advance Security in America (CASA) today filed a supplemental complaint with the Internal Revenue Service demanding an immediate investigation into the Southern Poverty Law Center’s (SPLC) 501(c)(3) nonprofit tax-exempt status. The filing comes just days after a federal grand jury in Montgomery, Ala., indicted the organization with 11 criminal counts, including wire fraud, false statements to a federally insured bank, and conspiracy to commit concealment money laundering.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, the SPLC secretly funneled more than $3 million in donor funds to some of the very extremist groups it publicly condemns, including the Ku Klux Klan, Aryan Nations, National Socialist Party of America, and others featured on its notorious “Hate Map.” SPLC paid informants who actively promoted racism and helped coordinate events, such as the infamous 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, using fictitious entities and bank accounts to conceal these payments.

CASA’s new IRS filing incorporates the April 21 indictment as powerful new evidence that the SPLC has engaged in substantial illegal activity directly contrary to its claimed exempt purposes. Under IRS rules and Supreme Court precedent, even a single substantial non-exempt or illegal purpose is grounds for revocation of tax-exempt status. Tax-exempt entities must operate exclusively for charitable purposes and serve as “beneficial and stabilizing influences in community life.”

“Financing and facilitating the same hate groups the SPLC purports to fight is the antithesis of a public benefit and American taxpayers should not be forced to subsidize it,” said CASA director James Fitzpatrick.

“An organization that allegedly funds Klansmen and neo-Nazis, opens fake bank accounts, and lies to its donors is not operating exclusively for any charitable purpose recognized under Section 501(c)(3) and cannot continue to enjoy the privileges of tax-exempt status. The IRS must investigate its tax-exempt status.”

CASA originally filed an IRS complaint in October 2025 in the wake of the assassination of Charlie Kirk. That complaint highlighted the SPLC’s long-standing pattern of hyper-partisan political activity, including selective targeting of conservative groups like Turning Point USA while ignoring left-wing extremism, inflammatory rhetoric designed to sow division, and statements from its own spokespeople admitting the goal was to “destroy” targeted groups. Today’s supplemental filing builds directly on CASA’s original action and the new criminal evidence.

About the Center to Advance Security in America (CASA)

The Center to Advance Security in America (CASA) is a nonpartisan organization dedicated to improving the safety and security of the American people. CASA educates and informs the public about the actions of their government and its officials that impact their safety; peace and security; democracy, civil rights, and civil liberties; and privacy.

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