Additional Coverage:
- A former Facebook and Nike DEI manager got 5 years in prison for stealing $5 million to fund her luxury lifestyle (newsbreak.com)
Barbara Furlow-Smiles, previously serving as a diversity manager for both Facebook and Nike, has been sentenced to over five years in prison on charges of wire fraud, according to an announcement from the Northern District of Georgia’s US Attorney’s Office. Furlow-Smiles confessed to embezzling in excess of $5 million from the corporations using a complex scheme that involved the creation of fraudulent vendors, submission of fake invoices, and arrangement of cash kickbacks.
The sentencing, which places Furlow-Smiles at a five-year and three-month term, was detailed on Monday. US Attorney Ryan K. Buchanan highlighted Furlow-Smiles’ abuse of trust within her role at Facebook, detailing how she funneled millions from the tech giant through a network of counterfeit operations and financial arrangements that also continued during her tenure at Nike, even after her deceit was uncovered at Facebook.
From 2017 through 2021, as a key executive in charge of diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives at Facebook, Furlow-Smiles leveraged her access to the company’s financial resources, approving expenditures and falsifying expense reports to siphon funds to acquaintances for nonexistent services. These associates included a broad circle from friends and family to professional contacts, who would then reroute the majority of the received funds back to her.
She exploited these stolen finances to support a lavish lifestyle across states including California, Georgia, and Oregon. Her fraudulent activities amounted to nearly $5 million lost by Facebook and a significant sum from Nike, exceeding $120,000.
Furlow-Smiles’ actions not only demonstrate a gross misuse of her executive powers but also reflect a broader issue of wire fraud impacting prominent businesses, with notable figures like Sam Bankman-Fried of FTX, Theranos’ Elizabeth Holmes, and Autonomy’s Mike Lynch also entangled in similar legal battles.
Furthermore, the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center reported receiving a record number of online fraud complaints in 2023, totaling 880,000 cases and projecting losses upwards of $12.5 billion. This case against Furlow-Smiles, resulting in her conviction and order to reimburse nearly $5 million to Facebook and roughly $120,000 to Nike, underscores the widespread challenge of corporate and online fraud targeting major enterprises.