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Heidi Beirich, a former official at the Southern Poverty Law Center, has been arrested and charged with wire fraud conspiracy, conspiracy to submit false statements to a federally insured bank, and conspiracy to conceal money laundering. The charges emerged Wednesday as the SPLC faces a broader federal investigation into its operational practices and financial management.
In 2018, Neera Tanden, then-CEO of the Center for American Progress and a veteran Democratic operative who served multiple Democratic administrations including President Joe Biden’s, publicly commended Beirich as one of the nation’s leading experts on combating extremism and online speech. Fellow CAP senior fellow Henry Fernandez similarly praised her work tracking hate groups at the same event, calling her “probably the nation’s foremost expert on various forms of extremism.”
Federal prosecutors allege that Beirich oversaw payments totaling more than $1.2 million to an informant identified as “F-9” who infiltrated the neo-Nazi National Alliance. Court documents indicate Beirich maintained a romantic relationship with the informant and shared a home and bank accounts with him during the period covered by the indictment.
A 22-page indictment filed against the SPLC alleges the organization used donor money to fund leaders and organizers of racist groups, including the Ku Klux Klan, the Aryan Nation, and the National Alliance. Prosecutors claim SPLC informants actively promoted racist groups while the organization publicly denounced those same groups on its website.
Beirich joined the SPLC in 1999 as a senior writer and rose to director by 2012 before leaving in 2019 to establish the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism. Her legal representatives contend the charges misrepresent her work tracking extremist movements. The Center for American Progress has not commented on whether it plans to continue its association with Beirich.
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