Sam Amico
Former Facebook diversity program manager Barbara Furlow-Smiles has pleaded guilty to scamming the social media behemoth out of more than $4 million via a scheme in which she faked business deals in exchange for kickbacks, according to the Justice Department.
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Furlow-Smiles once held the position of lead strategist and global head of employee resource groups and diversity engagement at Facebook. Prosecutors alleged she used the stolen money to live an extravagant lifestyle, spanning from Georgia to California.
Per the New York Post:
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.
https://nypost.com/2023/12/13/business/ex-facebook-diversity-manager-pleads-guilty-to-bilking-4m-from-company-in-kickback-scheme-feds/
“Motivated by greed, she used her time to orchestrate an elaborate criminal scheme in which fraudulent vendors paid her kickbacks in cash,” US Attorney Ryan K. Buchanan said in a statement. “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 added, “Furlow-Smiles used lies and deceit to defraud both vendors and Facebook employees.”
She is set to be sentenced in March 2024.
