December 29, 2024

Barbara Furlow-Smiles attends the 2020 Sister Awards at Skiball Cultural Center on March 8, 2020 in Los Angeles, California.

Robin Marshall | Robin L. Marshall Getty Images

Former Diversity Manager Facebook and Nike Convicted and sentenced to five years and three months Theft exceeds $5 million Federal prosecutors said the companies were among those designated to participate in DEI programs.

Georgia resident Barbara Furlow-Smiles pleads guilty Wire transfer fraud In the December case, more than $4.9 million was stolen from Facebook “using a scheme involving defrauded vendors, fake invoices and cash kickbacks.” Atlanta U.S. Attorney Ryan Buchanan said in a statement.

“After being fired from Facebook, she blatantly continued her fraudulent conduct as Nike’s DEI leader, stealing an additional six figures from their diversity program,” Buchanan said.

Flo-Smyers, 38, used her stolen money to “fund an extravagant lifestyle in California, Georgia and Oregon,” according to Buchanan’s office, which asked a judge to sentence her to 6 1/2 years in prison.

She is chief strategist and global head of employee resource groups and diversity engagement at Meta subsidiary Facebook. She’s not Facebook’s top DEI executive.

Prosecutors said that while working at Facebook, she linked PayPal, Venmo and Cash App accounts to her Facebook credit cards and then used those accounts to pay her friends, relatives and others for goods and services they allegedly provided for the company. , but those goods and services were never delivered.

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Prosecutors said the “vast majority of funds” that went to other people were returned to Flo Smyers.

Meta determined that Furlow-Smiles began the scheme within months of joining the company in 2017, and that the investigation found that she “manipulated people close to and who trusted her, including former interns,” prosecutors said in the sentencing memorandum. , these people regard her as a mentor.

After being fired from Facebook in mid-2021, Furlow-Smiles worked at Nike from November of that year to February 2023 as senior director of diversity, equity and inclusion.

There, prosecutors say, she carried out a theft scheme similar to that on Facebook.

Flo-Smyers, who lives in Marietta, was sentenced Monday in federal court in Atlanta. District Judge Steven Grimberg also ordered her to pay $4.98 million in restitution to Facebook and $121,000 to Nike.

Meta previously told CNBC it was cooperating with law enforcement in their investigation of Furlow-Smiles, who has until July 22 to report to prison.

In addition to the money Furlow-Smiles stole from the company, prosecutors said in the sentencing memorandum, Meta lost more than $4.5 million, “in addition to attorney fees and other costs that Meta had to uncover and investigate her fraud.” plan.

“As Mehta noted, ‘the harm of (Flo Smiling’s) criminal conduct cannot be measured purely in financial terms,'” prosecutors recounted in the memo. “Her ‘crime also caused distress to the employees who worked closely with her.'”

Prosecutors said in the memo that Nike told prosecutors that she “was appointed to lead the company and that she would embody the value of ‘doing the right thing,’ one of Nike’s key mottos.” As explained, “To say that Ms. Flo-Smiles violated our trust is an understatement. The fraudulent conduct that Ms. Flo-Smiles committed violated the trust of the employees who managed her and worked with her.” and destroyed them.”

Negi also told prosecutors she had a “complete lack of responsibility or remorse and is incredibly disappointing,” the memo said.

CNBC has asked Furlow-Smiles’ attorney and spokespersons for Meta and Nike to comment on her sentencing.

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