Palm Springs woman arrested on federal fraud charges in Southern Poverty Law Center case

PALM SPRINGS, Calif. (KESQ) A 59-year-old Palm Springs woman who once ran the Southern Poverty Law Center's hate group tracking project was arrested Wednesday on federal fraud and money laundering charges.

Heidi Beirich is charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to submit false statements to a federally insured bank and conspiracy to commit concealment money laundering, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Alabama. A federal grand jury in Montgomery returned the indictment Tuesday. It was unsealed Wednesday.

Beirich was served with an arrest warrant Wednesday morning in California and was expected to appear in federal court in the afternoon.

The indictment adds her to the government's existing case against the SPLC, which was charged in April with wire fraud, false statements to a federally insured bank and conspiracy to commit concealment money laundering. Prosecutors allege more than $4 million in donated money was secretly funneled to individuals tied to violent extremist groups between 2007 and 2023. The scheme used financial accounts tied to fictitious entities to hide who controlled the money, prosecutors say.

CNN reports Beirich oversaw payments of donor money to people inside those hate groups, including an Imperial Wizard in the Ku Klux Klan. She allegedly shared a bank account with one of the sources, a person who infiltrated a white supremacist group and allegedly had a romantic relationship with her, according to CNN's reporting on the indictment. Prosecutors say the SPLC paid the source more than $1 million since 2007, with $140,000 landing in the shared account, money Beirich allegedly used for their living expenses.

"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 were not accurate as described," Attorney General Todd Blanche said Wednesday.

"The indictment unsealed today reflects the continued work of federal investigators and prosecutors in examining this alleged scheme," U.S. Attorney Thomas Govan said. "We look forward to presenting the evidence in court and allowing the judicial process to determine the facts and the defendants' responsibility for the alleged crimes."

The FBI is investigating the case.