BREAKING: Former SPLC CFO Arrested, AG Blanche Confirms

Authorities arrested Heidi Beirich, the former chief financial officer of the Southern Poverty Law Center, Tuesday as part of the fraud case against the SPLC, Attorney General Todd Blanche announced.

“My understanding is, today there was an arrest made and there is a new indictment that includes the former CFO of SPLC,” Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a press conference Tuesday.

The SPLC faces federal charges of wire fraud, bank fraud, and conspiracy to conceal money laundering related to its alleged payments to members of the Ku Klux Klan, Neo-Nazis, and other groups. While the center claims it was paying informants in order to combat extremism, the Justice Department claims it was propping up the extremism that it claims it exists to oppose. The Justice Department also claims the SPLC opened bank accounts for fictitious entities to funnel cash to the extremists.

A superseding indictment in June alleged that a staff member had engaged in a romantic relationship with a Neo-Nazi who had taken money from the SPLC. The New York Post previously identified Beirich as that staff member.

Beirich left the SPLC in 2020, founding the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism with another former SPLC staffer that year.

The Daily Signal reached out to the SPLC and the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism regarding The New York Post’s reporting, and did not receive a response.

“I think, as alleged in the indictment, this individual participated in the scheme, as alleged, I believe she was part of the effort to open bank accounts in completely fictitious companies’ names and make payments to individuals for reasons that that were not accurate as as described,” Blanche said.

“This is exactly what we said would happen in a case like this, which is that our investigators and the US attorneys and the agents working the case will can keep on working it even after the initial indictment,” he added.

The Daily Signal reached out to the Justice Department, the SPLC, and the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, but did not receive an immediate response.