Former top executive at Southern Poverty Law Center accused of secretly channeling donor funds to lover who was in hate group

Former Southern Poverty Law Center director of intelligence Heidi Beirich.

A former top executive at The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is accused of secretly steering more than a million dollars worth of donor funds to the member of a nearly defunct hate group who was also believed to be her live-in lover. 

According to Chadwick Moore of The New York Post, the superseding indictment brought against the SPLC earlier this month alleges that "Employee-2" channeled money accumulated by the SPLC from donors into a joint bank account that was held by herself and her live-in boyfriend, a mysterious figure referred to only as "F-9" in the indictment. 

"Employee-2" is reportedly believed to be Heidi Beirich, who rose through the ranks over nearly two decades at the SPLC and eventually became its director of intelligence before leaving in 2019 to found a similar group called the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism. Beirich bills herself as "an expert on the American and European far right," which, in practicality, means she's frequently quoted bashing Donald Trump and Elon Musk in articles published by The Washington Post. 

Moore discovered in the superseding indictment that Beirich was allegedly channeling funds from the SLPC to a member of the National Alliance, a white supremacist hate group that was reportedly down to fewer than two dozen total members in 2013. Beirich is accused of doing her best to keep the hate group on life support, going so far as to author an article for the SLPC about the National Alliance's financial crimes that was based on documents stolen from the group's office. 

Beirich's love interest, who is not named in the indictment, is the one believed to have stolen the documents on which Beirich based her article. According to the indictment, Beirich orchestrated a payment of "approximately $6,000” to another individual at the National Alliance who allegedly took the blame for stealing the documents. 

All told, Beirich funneled $1.2 million to F-9, whom she shared a home and bank account with, according to the Justice Department. Some of those funds were used to cover their personal expenses. Beirich also drew a $190,000 annual salary from the SPLC during her later years at the organization. 

The SLPC has been charged with wire fraud, bank fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering charges as well as paying  so-called "informants" to stage the hate crimes the group has long said it has been fighting to stop. Moore's analysis of the latest indictment turned up several other allegations further implicating the SPLC in an alleged complex corruption scheme. Read Moore's full story at The New York Post.