Barbara Furlow-Smiles attends the 2020 Sisters’ Awards at Skirball Cultural Center on March 8, 2020 in Los Angeles, California.
Robin L. Marshall | Getty Images
A former diversity manager at Facebook And Nike was sentenced to five years and three months in prison for stealing more than $5 million from companies targeted for DEI initiatives, according to federal prosecutors.
Georgia resident Barbara Furlow-Smiles, who pleaded guilty to wire fraud in the case in December, stole more than $4.9 million from Facebook “using a scheme involving deceptive vendors, fake invoices and kickbacks.” Atlanta U.S. Attorney Ryan Buchanan said in a statement.
“After she was terminated from Facebook, she brazenly continued the fraud as DEI lead at Nike, where she stole another six-figure sum from the diversity program,” Buchanan said.
Furlow-Smiles, 38, used the money she stole “to fund a luxury lifestyle in California, Georgia and Oregon,” according to Buchanan’s office, which had asked a judge to sentence her to 6½ years in prison.
She was a senior strategist and global head of employee resource groups and diversity engagement at Facebook, Meta’s subsidiary. She was not Facebook’s top leader for diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.
Prosecutors said that during her time at Facebook, she linked PayPal, Venmo and Cash App accounts to her Facebook credit cards and then used those accounts to scam her friends, relatives and others for purported goods and services for the company to pay for items that were never delivered.
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“The vast majority of the money” that went to these other people was returned to Furlow-Smiles, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors said in a sentencing memo that Meta determined that Furlow-Smiles began the scheme within months of joining the company in 2017 and that an investigation found she “manipulated people close to her.” stood and trusted her, including former interns.” considered her a mentor.
After being fired from Facebook in mid-2021, Furlow-Smiles worked for Nike as Senior Director of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion from November of that year to February 2023.
While there, she carried out a theft scheme similar to that of Facebook, prosecutors said.
Furlow-Smiles, 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 another $121,000 to Nike.
Meta previously told CNBC that the company has been cooperating with law enforcement in the investigation of Furlow-Smiles, who has until July 22 to report to prison.
Prosecutors said in their sentencing memo that in addition to the money Furlow-Smiles stole from the company, Meta lost more than $4.5 million, “in addition to other costs, such as… B. Legal fees incurred by Meta having to uncover and investigate their fraud scheme.
“As Meta notes, the damage of [Furlow-Smiles’] Criminal behavior cannot be measured purely financially,” prosecutors wrote in their memo. “Her crimes also caused distress among the staff who worked closely with her.”
Nike told prosecutors that she was “entrusted with the role of a leader.” [the] Company that she would embody the value of “Doing the Right Thing,” which is one of NIKE’s core tenets,” the prosecutor said in his memo. “As Nike explains: “[t]To say that Ms. Furlow-Smiles has violated our trust would be an understatement. “The fraud committed by Ms. Furlow-Smiles violated and destroyed the trust of the employees she managed and worked with.”
Nike also told prosecutors that their “complete lack of responsibility or remorse was incredibly disappointing,” the memo said.
An attorney for Furlow-Smiles did not immediately comment.
A spokesperson for Meta declined to comment, referring CNBC to the prosecutor’s press release on the case.
Nike did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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2024-05-17 00:10:16
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