by WorldTribune Staff / 247 Real News December 14, 2023
One of the top managers in charge of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) at Facebook has pleaded guilty to scamming the social media giant out of more than $4 million, the Department of Justice said.
Barbara Furlow-Smiles, who served as lead strategist and global head of employee resource groups and diversity engagement at Facebook, had access to company credit cards and the ability to approve invoices as part of her role at the company. The DOJ said she “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, who used the stolen funds to live an extravagant lifestyle, prosecutors said.
Furlow-Smiles, who lives in Atlanta, pleaded guilty to wire fraud. She is scheduled to be sentenced March 19 and is free on a $5,000 bond.
The DOJ said Furlow-Smiles recruited former interns, her “university tutor,” a hair stylist, babysitters and nannies, as part of the kickbacks scheme.
It’s unclear if any of Furlow-Smiles’ associates are being charged in connection to the case.
She also misled Facebook into sending money to entities that did not provide kickbacks, including nearly $10,000 to an artist who created specialty portraits and more than $18,000 to a unnamed preschool.
To avoid scrutiny, Furlow-Smiles would submit fake expense reports claiming that the individuals were vendors at Facebook events who had helped with marketing or provided merchandise, the DOJ said.
Furlow-Smiles “abused a position of a trust as a global diversity executive for Facebook to defraud the company of millions of dollars, ignoring the insidious consequences of undermining the importance of her DEI mission,” U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Buchanan said in a statement after Furlow-Smiles pleaded guilty in a Georgia court on Tuesday.
“Motivated by greed, she used her time to orchestrate an elaborate criminal scheme in which fraudulent vendors paid her kickbacks in cash,” Buchanan added. “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.”
The New York Post Editorial Board noted that DEI “adds zero value to businesses and distracts from core missions (little things like providing goods and services in exchange for money).
“After this summer’s landmark Supreme Court victory against racism in college admissions, corporate America’s getting justly nervous about its own sins on this front.
“And backlash is growing against the idea that any company should spend a nickel on this morally backward nonsense.
“The case of Barbara Furlow-Smiles just puts a face on what a con DEI’s always been.”
Publishers and Citizen Journalists: Start your Engines
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