Former top exec at Southern Poverty Law Center indicted for alleged secret payments to fund racist activities

Former SLPC exectuive Heidi Beirich.

A former top official at The Southern Poverty Law Center was arrested and indicted by a grand jury on a host of charges related to her alleged involvement in the misappropriation of funds used to secretly fund and carry out "violent, racist and extremist activities" rather than working to counteract racism as the group publicly advertised. 

Heidi Beirich, the former top official at the SPLC, was arrested and has been charged with wire fraud, bank fraud and money laundering, over allegations that she made payments to so-called informants, including to a man whom she had a "romantic relationship" with and shared a home with, as well as two bank accounts. That same man also happened to be a member of a hate group.

The 59-year-old Beirich is accused of funneling $140,000 from SLPC bank accounts to her own accounts over a six-year period from 2015 to 2021. She reportedly earned an annual salary of $190,000 at the SPLC. Beirich is the first individual charged in the case and the SLPC has also been charged for allegedly providing funds to the Ku Klux Klan to pay for cross-burnings and costumes, as well as taking an active role in planning the 2017 "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville Virginia -- among other alleged crimes.

“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 or described,” Attorney General Todd Blanche told reporters on Wednesday, according to The Washington Post. Beirich's lawyer claimed she's innocent and that she plans to fight the charges after she was arrested this week.

The superseding indictment that was unsealed on Wednesday alleges that the SLPC secretly and fraudulently funneled more than $4 million in donated funds individuals associated with various violent extremist groups in the U.S. to fund all manner of racially-charged and violent activities between 2007 and 2023. Earlier this month, a judge denied the SPLC's motion to have the indictment thrown out, according to CBS News. 

U.S. Attorney Thomas Govan in a statement said, “We look forward to presenting the evidence in court and allowing the judicial process to determine the facts and the defendants’ responsibility for the alleged crimes.” Beirich is scheduled to be arraigned on August 19, CBS News reported.