A former Southern Poverty Law Center official was arrested Wednesday after a federal grand jury charged her in an expanding criminal case involving allegations that donated money was secretly funneled through fictitious entities to people associated with extremist groups.
Heidi Beirich, 59, of Palm Springs, California, was served with an arrest warrant Wednesday morning and was expected to make her initial appearance in federal court in California later in the day, according to the Justice Department.
A federal grand jury in Montgomery, Alabama, returned a second superseding indictment Tuesday adding Beirich as a defendant in the case involving the SPLC.
Beirich was charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to submit false statements to a federally insured bank and conspiracy to commit concealment money laundering.
The SPLC is also charged in the case.
Federal prosecutors allege the scheme involved donated funds, fictitious entities and financial accounts that were used to conceal the source, ownership and control of money.
The indictment alleges false representations were also made concerning how donated money was being used and how financial accounts were operated.
Attorney General Todd Blanche discussed Beirich’s arrest Wednesday and alleged that she participated in efforts to establish bank accounts using fictitious company names.
“I believe she was part of the effort to open bank accounts in completely fictitious companies’ names and make payments to individuals for reasons that were not accurate as described,” Blanche said.
Blanche said investigators continued examining the case following the government’s initial indictment.
“This is exactly what we said would happen in a case like this,” Blanche said. “Which is that our investigators and the US attorneys and the agents working the case will keep on working it even after the initial indictment.”
The charges against Beirich are connected to a broader federal case against the SPLC involving allegations that millions of dollars in donated funds were secretly directed to people associated with violent extremist organizations.
The Justice Department said the latest indictment alleges that more than $4 million in donated funds were secretly funneled to individuals associated with various violent extremist groups between 2007 and 2023.
The allegations involving Beirich include payments to an informant identified in court documents as “F-9.”
The informant was embedded within the National Alliance, a neo-Nazi organization.
According to reporting on the federal case, approximately $1.2 million in SPLC donor funds was allegedly directed to the informant.
Prosecutors have also alleged that Beirich had an undisclosed romantic relationship with F-9 while the payments were being made.
The pair allegedly shared a residence and bank account during that period.
The allegations do not establish that the $1.2 million was simply donated to the National Alliance itself. F-9 is described in reporting on the indictment as an informant who had infiltrated the neo-Nazi organization.
The federal government’s case centers in part on allegations that donor money was concealed through financial arrangements and fictitious entities.
The SPLC had already been charged in an 11-count federal indictment in April with wire fraud, making false statements to a federally insured bank and conspiracy to commit concealment money laundering.
The second superseding indictment adds Beirich as a defendant and brings additional charges against the organization.
The SPLC is a Montgomery-based civil rights organization known for tracking extremist and hate groups and pursuing civil rights litigation.
The organization has disputed the broader government’s allegations and has previously maintained that its informant program was legitimate and designed to gather information about extremist organizations, per the Daily Caller.
Beirich’s arrest significantly expands the federal case by bringing criminal charges against a former senior SPLC official personally.
