SPLC Boss Funneled $1.2M to Lover in Neo-Nazi Group
A federal indictment alleges a senior SPLC official funneled over $140,000 in donor funds to an informant in a white supremacist group with whom she had a romantic relationship.
The Department of Justice filed a superseding indictment on June 2 accusing the SPLC of channeling donor funds to the very hate groups it publicly claimed to be combating, as New York Post reports.
An individual identified as “Employee-2” in the indictment is described as a person who became Director of the SPLC’s Intelligence Project. Based on details provided in the charging document, that figure is understood to be Heidi Beirich, a 58-year-old who served as Director of Intelligence at the Alabama-based organization between 2012 and 2019.
The indictment alleges Beirich maintained an intimate relationship with an informant designated only as “F-9” who had infiltrated the neo-Nazi group National Alliance. The two reportedly shared a residence and two joint bank accounts during their relationship.
Between 2015 and 2021, approximately 140,000 dollars in donor money flowed from SPLC operating accounts into the joint bank accounts held by F-9 and Beirich, according to the indictment. That sum represented roughly 66 percent of all deposits ever made into their shared accounts. The indictment alleges Beirich then used those donor funds to cover the couple’s personal living expenses.
The charging document further claims that while receiving payment from the SPLC, the unnamed informant simultaneously raised money for the National Alliance and assisted in carrying out its extremist activities.
Stolen Documents and Cover-Up Allegations
Federal prosecutors describe how a source broke into National Alliance headquarters in West Virginia in 2014 and stole approximately 25 boxes of documents. Those materials were transported across state lines into North Carolina, copied, and the originals returned.
In 2015, Beirich authored an article allegedly based on the stolen materials for the SPLC’s “Hatewatch” website section. The piece, titled “Chaos at the Compound,” remains publicly accessible.
The indictment then describes an alleged cover-up scheme in which the SPLC paid a second informant roughly 6,000 dollars to claim responsibility for the burglary and protect the identity of their primary source.
William White Williams, 78, chairman of the National Alliance, confirmed to New York Post that the details in the indictment match what occurred to his organization. He suggested some members sought to leave the movement and approached the SPLC for assistance, but were instead persuaded to remain as paid informants.
Wider Pattern of Alleged Fraud
The Alabama-based SPLC faces charges of wire fraud, bank fraud, and money laundering conspiracy for allegedly promoting racist groups while simultaneously denouncing them on its website to solicit donations.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and FBI Director Kash Patel announced the charges on April 21. Patel alleged that rather than using informants to dismantle hate groups, the SPLC provided them with over four million dollars to continue promoting their ideologies, thereby creating targets the nonprofit could point to when seeking donor contributions.
The SPLC has accumulated approximately 800 million dollars through its fundraising efforts, according to publicly released nonprofit accounting records.
National Alliance Decline and SPLC Coverage
By 2013, the National Alliance had effectively ceased functioning as a viable organization. That year, then-chairman Erich Gliebe, a former boxer known as the Aryan Barbarian, sent a letter to followers announcing the end of the group’s membership program. Membership had collapsed from 1,400 to approximately 20 members in less than a decade.
Despite this internal collapse and decline, the SPLC began amplifying the group’s public profile the following year, publishing nearly a dozen articles about the organization.
Background and Departure
Beirich joined the SPLC in 1999 and became Director of the Intelligence Project in 2012. She departed in 2019 as part of a major organizational upheaval that saw numerous top officials leave amid accusations of racism and sexual harassment. Critics charged that the group was primarily run by white personnel with black employees relegated to lower ranks. Beirich was not publicly implicated in those scandals.
Tax filings show Beirich earned 190,000 dollars annually in salary and benefits from the SPLC prior to her departure.
The identity of informant F-9 remains unknown. According to the indictment, that individual received 1.2 million dollars in total from the SPLC over a 20-year period.
Both Beirich and the SPLC did not respond to requests for comment.
With information from New York Post
