MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Federal prosecutors on Wednesday charged Heidi Beirich, the former director of the Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Project, with wire fraud, bank fraud and money laundering, expanding to an individual defendant a case the Justice Department first brought against the civil rights nonprofit in April.
The superseding indictment, unsealed in federal court in Montgomery, is the first criminal charge against a person tied to the SPLC in the probe. Prosecutors allege the group told donors and banks it was dismantling white supremacist groups while funneling money through shell accounts to confidential informants who were themselves leaders and organizers inside those groups. Beirich was arrested in California and is scheduled to be arraigned Aug. 19.
The allegations
The indictment alleges Beirich oversaw payments to a source identified as "F-9," who infiltrated the neo-Nazi National Alliance and received more than $1.2 million from the SPLC over several years. Prosecutors say Beirich was in a romantic relationship with the informant during that period, shared a home and two bank accounts with him, and that $140,000 moved from an SPLC-operated account into the joint accounts between 2015 and 2021. Some of the money went to personal living expenses, according to the filing.
Attorney General Todd Blanche described the case at an unrelated news conference in Washington before the indictment was on the public docket, saying Beirich "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 mistakenly referred to Beirich as the SPLC's former chief financial officer, CBS News reported. Beirich led the Intelligence Project from 2012 until leaving the group in December 2019 to launch the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism.
The defense
Beirich's lawyer, Michael J. Proctor, called the case "without merit" and said the charges are "politically motivated." Abbe Lowell, defending the SPLC, said the new charge reflects "a desperate government confronting a weak case, scrambling to make something — anything — stick as we approach trial." The SPLC pleaded not guilty in April to 11 counts of wire fraud, bank fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering. U.S. District Judge Emily Marks last week denied the group's bid to dismiss the case as a vindictive prosecution, finding it had not shown animus by prosecutors.
Fox News noted that in 2018, Center for American Progress chief executive Neera Tanden praised Beirich as among the "terrific" leaders fighting online extremism, and that CAP colleagues then described her project as the country's leading hate-group tracker.
The disputed frame
The SPLC and Beirich's lawyers say federal authorities were aware of the informant program at the time, that the government had used intelligence the program produced, and that the criminal case reflects political retaliation against a group conservative critics have long sought to discredit. Legal experts cited by CBS News said the indictment's own language leaves open whether donors were misled or whether banks were in fact deceived. The Justice Department has said the shell accounts and payments were themselves the fraud.
Beirich's arraignment is set for Aug. 19 in Montgomery.