How the SPLC became financial infrastructure

The Department of Justice unsealed an indictment against a well-respected civil rights non-profit on April 21st. Here I tell the improbable story of how the private intelligence agency it ran published a data product, then drove wide adoption of it in the financial industry as a screening tool for accounts and transactions. Jeff Bezos couldn't do better than it.

The private intelligence agency also ran covert assets. Those covert assets needed a paycheck. It is not straightforward to get a bank account for a private intelligence agency. So they opened several bank accounts for front businesses. One could describe that act with several words from Title 18 of the U.S. Code.

Strong words.

The Department of Justice certainly does.

We will follow up next week with what happened when the private intelligence agency expanded its ambitions from combating domestic terrorism to combating domestic politicians.

Full text of the essay this episode is taken from

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