Foreign Policy > NGOs

NGOs Cosplaying at Overlords and Power Brokers

A bad week for Iran, the SPLC, and the Left in general. 

Clarice Feldman | April 26, 2026

That description comes from Chamath Palihapitiya, a venture capitalist, and relates to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) which was just indicted by a federal grand jury in Alabama.

The SPLC formed years ago to seek damages for KKK victims. Over the years it amassed a fortune and used it and its connections with the media and the Democrats unfairly to tar and ruin the livelihoods and reputations of individuals and organizations with which it disagreed -- including groups like Moms for Liberty and Parents Defending Education. The switch proved immensely profitable. It has more than $800 million in assets, some hundreds of millions of which are held in offshore accounts like the Cayman Islands.

The indictment reveals payments of more than $3 million by the SPLC to individuals connected to extremist groups like the Ku Klux Klan, United Klans of America, Unite the Right, National Alliance, National Socialist Movement, the Aryan Nations-affiliated Sadistic Souls Motorcycle Club, National Socialist Party of America (American Nazi Party), and American Front. It includes six counts of wire fraud, four counts of false statements to a bank, and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche alleged that the SPLC had used “paid operatives within extremist circles to incite and intensify racial tensions,” arguing the civil rights organization “fostered the very threats it claimed to fight.”

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche alleged that the SPLC had used “paid operatives within extremist circles to incite and intensify racial tensions,” arguing the civil rights organization “fostered the very threats it claimed to fight.”

Its key donors and benefactors include George Soros/Open Society and George Clooney/Clooney Foundation for Justice, Tim Cook/Apple, JP Morgan Chase, Open AI, MGM Resorts. None of which have defended their donations since the indictment.

In addition to big left-wing donors, investigators have traced over $27 million in federal money to the SPLC through USAID and another NGO, the Tides Foundation, 

SPLC’s legal jeopardy, per the indictment, arises because it

...opened bank accounts connected to a series of fictitious entities which allowed it to disguise the “true nature, source, ownership and control of the fraudulently obtained donated money the SPLC paid the individuals. In order to keep the scheme going, the SPLC made a series of false statements related to the operation of the accounts, A conviction will result in the forfeiture of financial gains from the alleged activity.

...opened bank accounts connected to a series of fictitious entities which allowed it to disguise the “true nature, source, ownership and control of the fraudulently obtained donated money the SPLC paid the individuals. In order to keep the scheme going, the SPLC made a series of false statements related to the operation of the accounts, A conviction will result in the forfeiture of financial gains from the alleged activity.

What financial gains, you might ask? Well, let’s take the SPLC role in Charlottesville, Virginia, because it’s the clearest (in my mind) example of how SPLC stoked racial discord to target Republicans while increasing their money haul. It is a wonderful example of entrepreneurial “genius.” 

The city of Charlottesville in 2017 decided to remove historic statues of Robert E. Lee and Thomas Stonewall Jackson. Local citizens rallied to oppose this. SPLC-funded Unite the Right crashed the demonstration with tiki torches, shouting “blood and soil” and a melee resulted in injuries and one death.

President Trump denounced the extremists but added that there were “many fine people” involved in protecting the Confederate statues. There were. There is nothing extreme about wanting to preserve history. The media selectively edited the clip which was recycled over and over in the media to manipulate people into believing that Trump and those who supported him or traditional values were racist Nazis. It was a big payoff for SPLC. They contributed $270 thousand to the Charlottesville takeover and received $81 million in additional donations for their scheme. 

As the SPLC's left-wing advocacy grew, so did its financial holdings, prompting criticism from former employees like Bob Moser, who described the group in 2019 as a "highly profitable scam" that was "ripping off donors." "Its balance sheet long ago revealed the SPLC had ceased to be a charity and become a venture capital firm," Scott Walter, the president of the Capital Research Center, a conservative watchdog group, told the Washington Free Beacon. "The indictment reinforces that fact by revealing the SPLC operates like a centimillionaire who simultaneously invests in a drug to treat........

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