Latest / The Ben Ferguson Podcast / Southern Poverty Law Center Ran Covert Network While Denouncing the Same Groups Publicly
Transcript
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- 0:23Speaker 2: You're listening to the forty seven Morning Update with Ben ferguson.
- 0:27Speaker 3: Good Wednesday morning.
- 0:28Speaker 4: Nice to have you with us on the forty seven
- 0:29Speaker 4: Morning Update, and we've got one massive story for you
- 0:32Speaker 4: this morning. The Justice Department has a nounced a sweeping
- 0:36Speaker 4: indictment against a Southern poverty law center. The indictment alleges
- 0:41Speaker 4: that they secretly funneled more than three million dollars in
- 0:45Speaker 4: funds to members of white supremacists and extremist groups, all
- 0:51Speaker 4: will claiming that's exactly who they were fighting. Every day,
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- 2:24Speaker 4: the switch Today. It's the forty seven Morning Update and
- 2:28Speaker 4: it starts right now.
- 2:30Speaker 2: Story number one.
- 2:31Speaker 3: We've got major breaking news.
- 2:33Speaker 4: The Department of Justice has now announced that the far
- 2:36Speaker 4: left Southern Poverty Law Center was charged with fraud and
- 2:42Speaker 4: money laundering involving violent extremists groups quote unquote. In a
- 2:49Speaker 4: press release from the Office of Public Affairs for the DOJ,
- 2:53Speaker 4: it was revealed that the Southern Poverty Law Center was
- 2:57Speaker 4: charged by an Alabama grand jury with eleven counts of
- 3:01Speaker 4: wire fraud, false statements to a federally insured bank, and
- 3:06Speaker 4: conspiracy to commit concealment money laundering. According to the press release,
- 3:11Speaker 4: an indictment says that starting in the nineteen eighties, the
- 3:16Speaker 4: Southern Property Law Center began operating a covert network of
- 3:20Speaker 4: individuals who were either associated with violent and extremist groups
- 3:27Speaker 4: such as the klu Klux Klan. To be clear, the
- 3:32Speaker 4: indictment is saying that the Southern Poverty Law Center was
- 3:37Speaker 4: associated with violent and extremist groups, including the klu Klux Klan.
- 3:42Speaker 4: This is incredible now. According to the indictment, starting in
- 3:47Speaker 4: the nineteen eighties, the Southern Property Law Center began operating
- 3:52Speaker 4: a covert network of individuals who were either associated with
- 3:56Speaker 4: violent and extremist groups such as the klu Klux Klan,
- 4:00Speaker 4: or who had infiltrated violent extremist groups at the Southern
- 4:04Speaker 4: Poverty Law Center's direction.
- 4:07Speaker 3: Now, unbeknownst to.
- 4:09Speaker 4: The donors, some of their donated money was being used
- 4:14Speaker 4: to fund the leaders and organizers of racist groups at
- 4:19Speaker 4: the same time that the Southern Poverty Law Center was
- 4:22Speaker 4: denouncing the same groups on its own website. That's just
- 4:27Speaker 4: stealing money, folks. If you're giving money the klu Klux
- 4:31Speaker 4: Klan while claiming you're fighting the klu Klux Klan, that's
- 4:34Speaker 4: a massive fraud. Now, the Southern Poverty Law Center also
- 4:38Speaker 4: allegedly funneled more than three million dollars donated funds to
- 4:44Speaker 4: individuals who were associated with groups such as the National
- 4:48Speaker 4: Socialist Movement, the United Clans of America, and the Aryan
- 4:55Speaker 4: Nations affiliated Sadistic Soul's Motorcycle Club, all of this between
- 5:01Speaker 4: twenty fourteen and twenty twenty three, according to the press release. Now,
- 5:07Speaker 4: the Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement
- 5:12Speaker 4: that the Southern Poverty Law Center is manufacturing racism to
- 5:16Speaker 4: justify its existence as an organization, then saying this quote
- 5:22Speaker 4: using donor money to allegedly profit off clansmen cannot go unchecked.
- 5:30Speaker 4: In a post on Acts, the Federal Bureau of Investigations
- 5:33Speaker 4: Director Cashptel shared that he and Blanche were announcing an
- 5:37Speaker 4: eleven count indictment against the Southern Poverty Law Center this evening.
- 5:43Speaker 4: Blanche and I are announcing it against the Southern Poverty
- 5:47Speaker 4: Law Center. Charges include wire fraud, false statements to a
- 5:52Speaker 4: federally insured bank, and conspiracy to commit concealment money laundering.
- 5:57Speaker 4: The FBI director continued in a statement on saying the
- 6:00Speaker 4: Southern Poverty Law Center allegedly engaged in a massive fraud
- 6:04Speaker 4: operation to deceive their donors, enrich themselves, and hide their
- 6:10Speaker 4: deceptive operations from the public. They lied to their donors
- 6:15Speaker 4: vowing to dismantle violent extremist groups, and actually turned around
- 6:19Speaker 4: and paid the leaders of these very extremist groups, even
- 6:24Speaker 4: utilizing the funds to have these groups facilitate the commission
- 6:29Speaker 4: of state and federal crimes. That is illegal and this
- 6:33Speaker 4: is an ongoing investigation against all individuals involved now. Casprittel,
- 6:39Speaker 4: after putting that out, also had to press conference of
- 6:42Speaker 4: the Department of justice, and here is what he had
- 6:45Speaker 4: to say, or here.
- 6:46Speaker 5: Today is to announce what the what the General just
- 6:49Speaker 5: told you. The Southern Popty Law Center, in a massive
- 6:53Speaker 5: sweeping indictment, has been charged with allegations of fraud and
- 6:57Speaker 5: using the banking system to perpetrate that fraud. I just
- 7:00Speaker 5: want to talk about a couple of brief things here.
- 7:03Speaker 5: The Southern Property Law Center themselves advertise to raise money
- 7:07Speaker 5: to dismantle violent extremist groups for a period of at
- 7:11Speaker 5: least a decade. They use their donor network to raise
- 7:14Speaker 5: money to purportedly dismantle violent extremist groups. However, the SPLC,
- 7:20Speaker 5: the Southern Property Law Center used the money they raised
- 7:23Speaker 5: from their donor network to actually pay the leadership of
- 7:27Speaker 5: these very groups. I just want to say that again,
- 7:30Speaker 5: they use the fraudulently raised money by lying to their
- 7:33Speaker 5: donor network thousands of Americans to go ahead and actually
- 7:37Speaker 5: pay the leadership of these supposed violent extremist groups. The groups,
- 7:43Speaker 5: as the General laid out, include the Ku Klux Klan,
- 7:46Speaker 5: the United Clans of America Unite to Write National Alliance,
- 7:51Speaker 5: the National Socialist Movement, the Aryan Nation Motorcycle Club, and
- 7:56Speaker 5: the National Socialist Party of America and also the American
- 7:59Speaker 5: Front and at least one of these matters. Our investigation
- 8:03Speaker 5: revealed that funds were used to facilitate the commission of
- 8:06Speaker 5: further state and federal offenses, totaling over three million dollars. Furthermore,
- 8:12Speaker 5: our investigation revealed that the Southern Poverty Law Center, on
- 8:16Speaker 5: top of perpetuating this widespread, decade long, multi million dollar fraud,
- 8:22Speaker 5: conducted more criminal activity. They attempted to hide their criminal
- 8:27Speaker 5: activity from our financial banking network. They set up shell
- 8:31Speaker 5: companies and entities around America so that the financial institutions
- 8:36Speaker 5: that we rely on as everyday Americans were deceived in
- 8:39Speaker 5: believing that money was not coming from the Southern Poverty
- 8:41Speaker 5: Law Center in the perpetration of this scheme and fraud,
- 8:44Speaker 5: but rather fictitious entities they stood up to perpetuate this
- 8:48Speaker 5: ongoing fraud. This is a serious and egregious violation of
- 8:52Speaker 5: a group that purported to dismantle violent extremists groups, but
- 8:56Speaker 5: in turn actually only fueled the hatred. This is an
- 9:00Speaker 5: important case brought by the President. By President Trump's administration,
- 9:03Speaker 5: We're thankful for the present for his leadership and funding
- 9:06Speaker 5: of not just the FBI and DOJ, but his commitment
- 9:08Speaker 5: to go out there and wipe out fraud and conspiracy
- 9:11Speaker 5: and waste and abuse wherever it occurs, including the Southern
- 9:15Speaker 5: Poverty Law Center. Even though this money was made to
- 9:17Speaker 5: appear to be coming from legitimate people and legitimate entities,
- 9:22Speaker 5: we at the FBI, with our great partners at the
- 9:25Speaker 5: Department of Justice and in the State of Alabama, were
- 9:27Speaker 5: able to comb through a decade worth of material, a
- 9:31Speaker 5: scheme that took a decade to build, so that we
- 9:33Speaker 5: were able to follow the money because money never lies,
- 9:37Speaker 5: and they got caught. As the Attorney General said, these
- 9:40Speaker 5: charges are varying, they are widespread and wide ranging, and
- 9:45Speaker 5: this investigation is very much ongoing. Today we're here to
- 9:48Speaker 5: announce the charges of the Southern Poverty Law Center and
- 9:51Speaker 5: this investigation and the individuals were responsible will be brought
- 9:54Speaker 5: to justice.
- 9:55Speaker 4: The most shocking thing about what Cashpottel said there is
- 9:58Speaker 4: not only did they seek g really funneled three million
- 10:01Speaker 4: in donor funds to violent racist extremist groups including literally
- 10:05Speaker 4: the klu Klux Klan, the American Nazi Party, the Area Nation,
- 10:11Speaker 4: the United Clans of America Unite, the Right, National Alliance,
- 10:15Speaker 4: National Socialist Movement, Sadistic Souls, Motorcycle Club, and America Front,
- 10:21Speaker 4: just to name a few.
- 10:22Speaker 3: But they knew what they were doing.
- 10:25Speaker 4: And how do you know that because to hide the payments,
- 10:29Speaker 4: the Southern Poverty Law Center allegedly open bank accounts under
- 10:34Speaker 4: fictitious entities, as it was described there in the press conference.
- 10:38Speaker 3: Why would you do that? One reason?
- 10:42Speaker 4: You want to conceal the source and control of the
- 10:45Speaker 4: donor funds. And that's what they did, and per the indictment,
- 10:50Speaker 4: the Southern Poverty Law Center Field Source was a member
- 10:54Speaker 4: of the online leadership chat group that planned the twenty
- 10:58Speaker 4: seventeen Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville. They made racist
- 11:03Speaker 4: postings under Southern Poverty Law Centered supervision and helped coordinate
- 11:09Speaker 4: transportation to that event. The FBI director saying, not only
- 11:13Speaker 4: do they lie their donors vowing to dismantle violent extremist groups,
- 11:17Speaker 4: and actually turned around and paid the leaders of these
- 11:20Speaker 4: very extremist groups, even utilizing the funds to have these
- 11:25Speaker 4: groups facilitate the Commission of State and Federal Crimes. Todd
- 11:31Speaker 4: Blanche in the indictment, he had this to say at
- 11:35Speaker 4: the Department of Justice.
- 11:37Speaker 6: Now as the indictment lays out, after SBLC paid members
- 11:42Speaker 6: of these extremist groups, it created work product that reported
- 11:45Speaker 6: on these activities that the members participated in or contributed to,
- 11:50Speaker 6: and to that end, it was doing the exact opposite
- 11:53Speaker 6: of what it's told its donors. It was doing not
- 11:57Speaker 6: dismantling extremism, but funding it. To carry out this scheme,
- 12:02Speaker 6: SPLC created bank accounts in the name of at least
- 12:05Speaker 6: five completely fictitious organizations that had no bona fide employees
- 12:10Speaker 6: or legitimate business purpose. The money was passed from SPLC
- 12:16Speaker 6: to one sham account, to a second sham account, and
- 12:18Speaker 6: then loaded onto prepaid cards to give to the members
- 12:22Speaker 6: of the extremist groups. This was designed to shield the
- 12:25Speaker 6: source of those funds, and because of this, SPLC is
- 12:28Speaker 6: also charged with one count, as I said earlier, of
- 12:32Speaker 6: conspiracy to commit money laundering. In conclusion, I want to
- 12:36Speaker 6: thank the acting US Attorney in the Middle disc of Alabama,
- 12:39Speaker 6: Kevin Davidson, who's in his district right now and not
- 12:42Speaker 6: able to be with us, for bringing this important case,
- 12:46Speaker 6: along with the FBI team in Alabama for their hard
- 12:49Speaker 6: work during this investigation. This investigation is ongoing.
- 12:56Speaker 4: This is truly a bombshell. It'll be very interesting to
- 13:00Speaker 4: see what else comes out in this ongoing investigation. The
- 13:04Speaker 4: one thing that is for sure, the people that are
- 13:07Speaker 4: doing things like this you're on notice because the Trump
- 13:11Speaker 4: administration and the men and women in charge of the
- 13:13Speaker 4: DOJ and the FBI, they're doing their job rooting out
- 13:18Speaker 4: this type of corruption.
- 13:19Speaker 2: Thank you for listening to the forty seven Morning Update
- 13:22Speaker 2: with Ben Ferguson. Please make sure you hit subscribe wherever
- 13:26Speaker 2: you're listening to this podcast right now and for more
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- 13:33Speaker 2: and we will see you back here tomorrow