Former Facebook and Nike DEI manager sentenced to 5 years in prison for fraud scheme
A former diversity program manager for Facebook and Nike who admitted to stealing $5 million through kickback schemes she orchestrated at the companies is headed to federal prison for her crimes.
The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Georgia announced this week that Barbara Furlow-Smiles, 38, was sentenced to five years and three months behind bars for her fraud scheme and ordered to pay restitution of $4,981,783.58 to Meta-owned Facebook and $121,054.50 to Nike.
"Furlow-Smiles shamelessly violated her position of trust as a DEI executive at Facebook to steal millions from the company utilizing a scheme involving fraudulent vendors, fake invoices, and cash kickbacks," U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Buchanan said in a statement announcing the sentence.
"After being terminated from Facebook, she brazenly continued the fraud as a DEI leader at Nike, where she stole another six-figure sum from their diversity program," Buchanan continued. "Her prison sentence reflects the consequences of her decision to orchestrate an intricate scheme to defraud two of her employers for personal profit."
Furlow-Smiles led diversity, equity and Inclusion (DEI) programs at Facebook from January 2017 to September 2021 and was responsible for developing and executing DEI initiatives, operations and engagement programs.
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Prosecutors say she committed the fraud by linking PayPal, Venmo and Cash App accounts to credit cards given to her by Facebook and used those accounts to pay friends, relatives, former interns at a prior job, nannies, babysitters, a hairstylist and others for goods and services that were never provided to the company.
After Furlow-Smiles was terminated by Facebook, she worked as a DEI senior director at Nike from November 2021 to February 2023, where she carried out a similar kickback scheme against that employer.
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"As Lead Strategist at Facebook, Furlow-Smiles’ employer put an extreme amount of trust in her, only to have that trust completely violated," said Keri Farley, special agent in charge of FBI Atlanta. "After she was fired, she carelessly continued her fraudulent schemes at Nike, thinking she was untouchable.
"As a result," Farley added, "she not only threw away a lucrative career, but will serve time behind bars for her excessive greed."
FOX Business' Louis Casiano contributed to this report.