(NewsWorthy.news) – A Georgia woman who formerly worked as a diversity manager at the social media company Facebook and for Nike was sentenced to over five years in prison for embezzling more than $5 million that the two companies had earmarked for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiatives.
According to a May 13 press release from the US Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia, 38-year-old Barbara Furlow-Smiles of Marietta pleaded guilty in December to wire fraud for stealing over $4.9 million from Facebook in a scheme that involved “fraudulent vendors, fake invoices, and cash kickbacks.”
Once Furlow-Smiles was fired from Facebook, she continued her fraudulent activity at Nike, stealing over $120,000 from the company’s diversity program.
Furlow-Smiles then used the money she stole “to fund a luxury lifestyle,” according to the press release.
Furlow-Smiles was Facebook’s global head of employee resource groups and diversity engagement. However, she was not the social media company’s top DEI executive.
According to prosecutors, while employed by Facebook, Furlow-Smiles linked multiple online cash accounts, like PayPal, Cash App, and Venmo, to her Facebook credit cards and then used them to pay others, including family and friends, for goods and services that Facebook never received.
Once her associates received the payments, they kicked back the money to Furlow-Smiles either through bank transfers or in cash.
Meta, Facebook’s parent company, discovered the scheme within months of hiring Furlow-Smiles in 2017. A subsequent investigation revealed that she “manipulated” those who trusted her, including former interns, to help her in the scheme.
Furlow-Smiles was fired from Facebook in 2021. By November 2021, Nike hired Furlow-Smiles to be senior director of the company’s DEI program. Within no time, Furlow-Smiles launched a similar scheme, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors requested a sentence of six and a half years.
However, in a sentencing hearing on May 13, US District Judge Steven Grimberg the judge sentenced Furlow-Smiles to five years and three months. The judge also ordered Furlow-Smiles to pay $4.98 million in restitution to Facebook and $121,000 to Nike.
Copyright 2024, NewsWorthy.news
