FIRST ON FOX: A pair of former top executives at the Southern Poverty Law Center used a network of checking accounts to secretly funnel $4.1 million to extremists, including one nicknamed "The Aryan Barbarian," in a long-running pay-to-hate scheme, federal officials told Fox News Digital.The SPLC's former chief financial officer Teenie Hutchison and ex-Intelligence Project chief Heidi Beirich allegedly created the accounts at Synovus Bank in 2008, making the beleaguered nonprofit’s trusted bank a hub for diverting supporters' donations to sketchy groups, sources said.The network ultimately supported secret payments to as many as 50 confidential "field sources," called "Fs," embedded within extremist organizations around the country.
Some 13 field sources have so far been identified in court filings."The SPLC found its niche, and its leaders built a fiefdom with donations they got like crazy," former NYPD intelligence official, attorney and Fox News contributor Paul Mauro said.Former SPLC Chief Executive Officer Margaret Huang allegedly signed a letter acknowledging the operation to Synovus bank officials in September 2021 before ending her tenure at the SPLC in July 2025.SPLC supporters have characterized the payment recipients as "informants," and they included a right-wing extremist behind the infamous 2017 "Unite the Right" protests in Charlottesville, Va."The government can run informants," said Mauro."Private industry cannot."The new revelations show the federal investigation of the SPLC is significantly larger than initially reported and was orchestrated at the organization's highest level.
Beirich was previously believed to be involved in the alleged payments, but this is the first time federal officials have confirmed her involvement.The new details about the SPLC case emerge as the Trump administration's Justice Department intensifies scrutiny of influential nonprofit organizations.Earlier this week, Fox News Digital reported exclusively that federal p...