DEI Pro Who Stole Millions from Woke Firms Jailed for 5 Years
How did a diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) program manager defraud Facebook and Nike of more than $5 million? With the help of crooked relatives and friends, as it turns out.
Former DEI program manager Barbara Furlow-Smiles was sentenced to five years, three months in prison this May after pleading guilty to wire fraud. During her 2017-21 reign at Facebook, Furlow-Smiles submitted invoices for imaginary goods and services, such as swag and marketing.
She linked PayPal, Venmo, and Cash App accounts to her Facebook credit cards and paid friends, relatives and associates. They included “former interns from a prior job, nannies and babysitters, a hair stylist and her university tutor,” according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia.
In return, they gave her cash kickbacks. Sometimes they sent the cash wrapped in DEI-themed T-shirts to her office. After 4 years of looking the other way, Facebook (now Meta) finally caught on to Furlow-Smiles’ scam and fired her. In total she stole $4.9 million — but rather than call it a day, she pushed her luck even further.
Juneteenth Event Proved a Cash Cow for DEI Scammer
Nike hired the DEI svengali just weeks after Meta fired her for cause. She quickly set the same con game in motion at her new place of employment.
“[Furlow-Smiles] linked her Nike corporate card to her PayPal and Venmo accounts,” according to FBI investigators. “She then paid her associates with PayPal and Venmo, causing fraudulent charges to her Nike card. The associates kicked back portions of the payments to Furlow-Smiles, who submitted fraudulent expense reports to Nike to cover her tracks. The expense reports falsely claimed that the payments were related to [a] Juneteenth event.”
The fraud at Nike didn’t prove as lucrative or as long-running as it was at Meta. In her 16 months at Nike, Furlow-Smiles only managed to steal $120K. But she lived large on the millions she made while it lasted by partying at her luxury homes in California, Georgia and Oregon.
The 38-year-old ex-senior DEI director was ordered to pay back every dime she stole from both companies. It’s a good bet she’ll need to sell whatever she still owns to do so and be forced to file for bankruptcy.
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