A former DEI chief at Facebook and Nike was sentenced to more than five years in prison after she pleaded guilty in December to stealing more than $5 million from both corporations.
Barbara Furlow-Smiles, 38, served as senior strategist, global head of employee resource groups and diversity engagement at Facebook from approximately January 2017 to September 2021.
During that time, he stole more than $4.9 million from the social media giant to “fund a luxury lifestyle in California, Georgia and Oregon.” saying the United States Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia.
“Furlow-Smiles brazenly violated her position of trust as a DEI executive at Facebook to steal millions from the company using a scheme involving fraudulent vendors, fake invoices, and cash kickbacks,” said U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Buchanan.
After she was fired from Facebook, she was hired at Nike as a diversity, equity and inclusion leader, only to implement a nearly identical plan.
Former Facebook and Nike diversity executive Barbara Furlow-Smiles (pictured) was sentenced to five years and three months in prison for stealing more than $4.9 million from Facebook and more than $121,000 from Nike.
Furlow-Smiles stole more than $121,000 from Nike.
He managed to scam Facebook, now Meta, by being a trusted member of its staff who had access to the company’s credit cards.
The former diversity executive linked PayPal, Venmo and Cash App accounts to her Facebook credit cards and used those accounts to pay friends, family and other associates for goods and services that were never provided to Facebook.
She covered her tracks by submitting false expense reports, claiming that her associates worked on programs or events for Facebook when all of that was false.
The other facet of her fraud was luring vendors she was personally connected to to supposedly work for Facebook.
Furlow-Smiles would approve fake invoices from suppliers and, once Facebook paid them, he would order them to send him a portion of the money they received.
The so-called salespeople included friends, family, interns from a previous Furlow-Smiles job, babysitters, a stylist and even her college tutor.
It is unclear if any of these people will face charges.
With Facebook money, he also paid more than $10,000 to an artist for specialized portraits and more than $18,000 to a preschool for tuition.
He also got the company to make payments for his profits in other ways, including payments of more than $18,000 to a preschool to cover tuition.
Once these people received payment from Facebook, they would give the money back to Furlow-Smiles so she could pocket it. They would send the money electronically to her or her husband’s bank accounts or send her cash wrapped in T-shirts.
It is unclear whether Furlow-Smiles was fired from Facebook due to this fraud, but during her tenure at Nike from November 2021 to February 2023, she again worked to obtain bribes through accomplices.
‘She carelessly continued her fraudulent schemes at Nike, thinking she was untouchable. As a result, not only did she squander a lucrative career, but she will serve time behind bars for her excessive greed,” said FBI Special Agent Keri Farley.
Furlow-Smiles will spend five years and three months in prison, plus three years of supervised release.
He was also ordered to pay back the money to both Facebook and Nike.
