A former Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) official accused of playing a central role in a scheme that funneled more than $1.2 million to white supremacist groups did not appear at her arraignment on Tuesday.
Heidi Beirich, who was arrested this month, waived her right to attend the virtual hearing in the Middle District of Alabama. Her attorneys appeared on her behalf and entered not-guilty pleas to all 14 felony counts, including wire fraud, bank fraud, and money laundering charges.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Kelly Pate scheduled her trial for October 5. Prosecutors and defense attorneys said the date will likely be postponed because of the large amount of evidence in the case.
“Dr. Beirich is innocent, and this case is without merit,” defense attorney Michael Proctor previously said.
“We believe the charges against her and the SPLC are politically motivated, and Dr. Beirich has been targeted in this case because of the important work she has done to combat hate groups and extremists.”
Beirich is the only individual publicly charged in the federal investigation of the SPLC. Prosecutors allege she arranged $1.2 million in payments to an informant identified as “F-9,” with whom she reportedly had a romantic relationship.
The indictment alleges that $140,000 from those payments was deposited into joint bank accounts shared by Beirich and F-9 between 2015 and 2021. The SPLC has separately pleaded not guilty to charges that it used $4.1 million in donations to finance informants inside extremist groups.
Beirich joined the SPLC in 1999 and directed its Intelligence Project from 2012 to 2019. The project tracked white nationalist and other extremist organizations.
According to the indictment, F-9 broke into the National Alliance’s headquarters in 2015 and stole 25 boxes of documents. Another informant was allegedly paid $6,000 to falsely accept responsibility for the burglary.
Some of the stolen material was later used in “Chaos at the Compound,” an article Beirich wrote for the SPLC’s Hatewatch blog, prosecutors allege. The article remains available on the organization’s website.
Beirich was initially identified only as “Employee-2” in a June 2 court filing, which described her as the person who later became director of the Intelligence Project. She was publicly identified in a media report later that month.
FBI Director Kash Patel said Beirich “was at the center of our ongoing investigation into SPLC.”
Patel alleged that the SPLC misled donors who believed their money was being used to dismantle extremist groups. Instead, some donations allegedly went to senior members of those organizations.
Beirich lives in Palm Springs, California, and previously appeared in federal court in Riverside.
