A former diversity program manager at Facebook and Nike was sentenced to over five years in prison after confessing to embezzling more than $5 million from these companies. The US Attorney’s Office announced for the Northern District of Georgia on Monday.
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Barbara Furlow-Smiles’ fraudulent activities began during her tenure as a DEI executive at Facebook, which lasted from 2017 to 2021. In a report by Business Insider, U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Buchanan said she exploited her position to initiate a scheme that involved fraudulent vendors and fake invoices. Through this scheme, she funneled money from Facebook to pay for personal expenses and a luxurious lifestyle. The fraudulent transactions included paying off personal acquaintances, who would repay most of the funds to her through PayPal, Venmo, and Cash App. The vendors were listed as a network of personal connections, including friends, relatives, former interns, nannies, a hair stylist, and her university tutor, and these individuals received payments for services not offered to Facebook.
Some personal expenses Furlow-Smiles covered were her child’s preschool and payments to an artist for specialty photographs. After she was fired from Facebook, she didn’t stop her schemes but took them over to her new position at Nike. Furlow-Smiles continued to misappropriate funds, stealing a significant six-figure sum from their diversity programs. Over six years, she misappropriated $4.9 million from Facebook and $120,000 from Nike.
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The funds supported her luxury lifestyle in various states, including Georgia, Oregon, and California. During her sentencing, Furlow-Smiles was ordered to make restitution payments of nearly $5 million to Facebook and $120,000 to Nike.
“As Lead Strategist at Facebook, Furlow-Smiles’ employer put an extreme amount of trust in her, only to have that trust completely violated. After she was fired, she carelessly continued her fraudulent schemes at Nike, thinking she was untouchable. As a result, she not only threw away a lucrative career, but will serve time behind bars for her excessive greed,” explained Keri Farley, Special Agent In Charge of FBI Atlanta.