南方贫困法律中心被联邦起诉：被控向极端组织关联线人输送逾300万美元
Montgomery——联邦大陪审团近日对总部位于阿拉巴马州 Montgomery 的南方贫困法律中心（Southern Poverty Law Center，SPLC）提出更新起诉书，共11项罪名，包括6项电汇欺诈、4项对联邦保险银行作虚假陈述及1项共谋洗钱。
起诉书指控，2014年至2023年间，SPLC 秘密向与 Ku Klux Klan、Aryan Nation、National Alliance、National Socialist Movement 等极端组织有关联的「线人」输送逾300万美元捐款，并通过虚构实体开设账户隐藏付款、欺骗捐赠人。代理司法部长 Todd Blanche 在记者会上称该机构「制造极端主义」；FBI 局长 Kash Patel 称其利用空壳公司隐藏付款。
SPLC 方面否认全部指控。其首席执行官 Bryan Fair 表示，向线人付费是合法的情报工作手段，线人曾冒着生命危险渗透极端组织。SPLC 与今年8月被捕的前高管 Heidi Beirich 均已作无罪答辩。包括 NAACP 在内的100多个民权组织发表联署声明，谴责此次起诉。
案件尚待审理，起诉书所载均为指控，未经法庭定罪。（GSM 据美联社等报道）
SPLC Indicted: Federal Grand Jury Alleges $3M+ Funneled to Informants Tied to Extremist Groups
MONTGOMERY, Ala. — A federal grand jury has returned a superseding indictment against the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), the Montgomery, Alabama-based civil rights organization, charging 11 counts: six of wire fraud, four of false statements to a federally insured bank and one of conspiracy to commit money laundering.
Prosecutors allege that from 2014 to 2023 the SPLC secretly funneled more than $3 million in donations to paid informants tied to extremist groups including the Ku Klux Klan, Aryan Nation, the National Alliance and the National Socialist Movement, using fictitious entities to open accounts and conceal the payments from donors. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said at a news conference that the organization had been "manufacturing extremism," and FBI Director Kash Patel said shell companies were used to hide the payments.
The SPLC denies all charges. Chief Executive Bryan Fair said paying informants is a legitimate intelligence-gathering practice and that informants risked their lives infiltrating extremist groups. The SPLC and former executive Heidi Beirich, who was arrested in August and named in a second superseding indictment, have pleaded not guilty. More than 100 civil rights organizations, including the NAACP, signed a joint statement condemning the prosecution.
The case is pending; the indictment contains allegations only and no court has entered a conviction. (GSM, from the Associated Press and other reports)
发布：GSM·美国（发布链接）
图片来源：图：位于 Montgomery 的民权纪念碑（Civil Rights Memorial），其后为南方贫困法律中心总部大楼（资料图）。图片来源：Wikimedia Commons，公共领域。Photo: The Civil Rights Memorial in Montgomery, with the SPLC headquarters behind it (file photo). Source: Wikimedia Commons, public domain.
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