Sentenced: Ex-Facebook Diversity Manager Pleads Guilty To Bilking $4M From Company In Kickback Scheme

[Sugar Cookie]

A former Facebook diversity program manager pleaded guilty to scamming the social media giant out of more than $4 million through a scheme in which she faked business deals in exchange for kickbacks, the Justice Department said.

Barbara Furlow-Smiles, who served as lead strategist and global head of employee resource groups and diversity engagement at Facebook, used the stolen funds to live an extravagant lifestyle that spanned from California to Georgia, prosecutors said.

From approximately January 2017 to September 2021, Furlow-Smiles led Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs at Facebook and was responsible for developing and executing DEI initiatives, operations, and engagement programs,” according to the DOJ.

The feds said Furlow-Smiles, who had access to company credit cards and the ability to approve invoices as part of her role at the company, “caused Facebook to pay numerous individuals,” including her friends and relatives, “for goods and services never provided to the company.”

Those individuals would later funnel kickbacks to Furlow-Smiles.

Those allegedly recruited to participate in the kickback scheme included some of Furlow-Smiles’ former interns, her “university tutor,” a hair stylist, babysitters and nannies, the feds said.

It’s unclear if any of Furlow-Smiles’ associates are being charged in connection to the case.

The Post has reached out to the DOJ for further comment.

She also misled Facebook into sending money to entities that did not provide kickbacks, including nearly $10,000 to an artist who created specialty portraits and more than $18,000 to a unnamed preschool.

To avoid scrutiny, Furlow-Smiles would submit fake expense reports claiming that the individuals were vendors at Facebook events who had helped with marketing or provided merchandise.

Furlow-Smiles “abused a position of a trust as a global diversity executive for Facebook to defraud the company of millions of dollars, ignoring the insidious consequences of undermining the importance of her DEI mission,” US Attorney Ryan K. Buchanan said in a statement after she pleaded guilty in a Georgia court Tuesday.

“Motivated by greed, she used her time to orchestrate an elaborate criminal scheme in which fraudulent vendors paid her kickbacks in cash,” Buchanan added. “She even involved relatives, friends, and other associates in her crimes, all to fund a lavish lifestyle through fraud rather than hard and honest work.”

FBI Special Agent Keri Farley said, “Furlow-Smiles used lies and deceit to defraud both vendors and Facebook employees.”

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Ex-Facebook diversity manager pleads guilty to bilking $4M from company in kickback scheme: feds

Among those recruited to participate in the kickback scheme included some of Furlow-Smiles’ former interns, her “university tutor,” a hair stylist, babysitters and nannies, the fe…

nypost.com

 

[Sugar Cookie]

Barbara Furlow-Smiles, 38, a former leader of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs for Facebook and Nike, was sentenced Monday to more than five years in prison after pleading guilty in December to stealing more than $5 million from her ex-employers.

Furlow-Smiles sat stoically as U.S. District Court Judge Steven Grimberg handed down the sentence. He also ordered her to pay back everything she stole over the six years she ran her schemes, down to the cent — $5,102,838.08.

Before sentencing, Furlow-Smiles addressed the court through tears: “Today, I stand here for the fight of my life.”

Ex-Facebook, Nike DEI leader sentenced to more than five years in prison

Barbara Furlow-Smiles, 38, a former leader of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs for Facebook and Nike, was sentenced Monday to more than five years in prison after pleading guilty in December to stealing more than $5 million from her ex-employers.

www.ajc.com

 

[Josh P]

I bet a lot of that money is gone with little to show for it