An informant who was paid by the Southern Poverty Law Center helped white supremacists plan the infamous “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017, according to the Justice Department. In an indictment made public on Tuesday, the SPLC stands accused of secretly using donors’ money to pay leaders within racist groups. One of the SPLC’s informants was a member of the leadership team of a white supremacist group that planned the rally in Charlottesville, according to the Justice Department. The informant, who was identified in the indictment as “field source 37” or “F-37,” was paid more than $270,000 by the SPLC between 2015 and 2023. The informant was part of a group chat created for those who were planning the “Unite the Right” rally, and the informant attended the rally “at the direction of the SPLC,” according to the department. “F-37 made racist postings under the supervision of the SPLC and helped coordinate transportation to the event for several attendees,” the indictment states. The 2017 “Unite the Right” rally included a mix of alt-Right groups, including neo-Nazis and Klansmen. The rally turned deadly when a man drove his car through a crowd of counter protesters, killing a 32-year-old woman and injuring 35 others. The rally and violence that ensued became a main talking point for Democrats who attempted to pin blame on President Donald Trump and Republicans. Joe Biden pointed to the Charlottesville rally as the main reason for his decision to jump into the 2020 presidential election, saying in his campaign announcement video, “In that moment, I knew the threat to this nation was unlike any I had ever seen in my lifetime.” The indictment announced by the Justice Department this week provides multiple examples of how SPLC informants affiliated with extremist groups were paid more than $3 million between 2014 and 2023. The SPLC is also accused of hiding its activity behind bank accounts that were opened for “a series of fictitious entities” and making false statements about the bank accounts to keep the operation going. One SPLC informant, identified as F-9, helped fundraise for the neo-Nazi group National Alliance. F-9 raked in more than $1 million from the SPLC over a 20-year period, according to the indictment. Another informant, F-30, was secretly paid around $70,000 by the SPLC during a time period when the informant was also on the SPLC’s webpage that identifies groups and individuals that the SPLC labels as “extremist.” F-30 led the National Socialist Party of America and had previously led a faction of the white supremacist group Aryan Nation. The informant paid by the SPLC was also a former Klan member. “In addition to directly paying leaders and others associated with the same violent extremist groups that the SPLC sought donations ostensibly to ‘dismantle,’ the SPLC also used Fs to indirectly funnel money to other violent extremist group leaders,” the indictment states. The SPLC is charged with six counts of wire fraud, four counts of making false statements to a federally insured bank, and one count of conspiracy to commit concealment money laundering. Many people on the Right have criticized the SPLC for lumping together white supremacists and neo-Nazis with mainstream conservatives. The SPLC was also used as a resource by the FBI to identify extremists before FBI Director Kash Patel cut the bureau’s ties with the leftist organization last year.