A former head of Variety, Fairness and Inclusion initiatives at Fb and Nike was sentenced to 5 years in jail this week for a brazen fraud scheme she ran whereas working on the firms.
Barbara Furlow-Smiles pleaded responsible in December to stealing greater than $5 million from the 2 large firms, although the overwhelming majority was taken throughout her time working for Fb from 2017 to 2021. She used the stolen money to fund a “luxurious way of life,” prosecutors stated.
“I blew it large time,” Furlow-Smiles admitted in a letter to the choose in her case.
Furlow-Smiles stated she had a lifetime dedication to being a voice for disenfranchised folks, however acknowledged that her actions “added gasoline to the hearth of disengagement and assault of DEI efforts.”
Exploiting her entry to firm bank cards at Fb, which is now known as Meta, Furlow-Smiles would pay folks for providers they didn’t do for the corporate, then have these folks chill the cash to her.
She introduced dozens of individuals into her scheme, prosecutors stated, together with “relations, former interns from a previous job, nannies, a hair stylist, and her college tutor.”
Generally, Furlow-Smiles had Fb instantly pay third events for private items or providers, together with $10,000 for specialty portraits and $18,000 for her youngster’s preschool tuition. She would then submit false stories concerning the work the folks had carried out for the corporate.
She stole about $4.9 million from Fb as a part of the scheme, prosecutors stated.
After Furlow-Smiles was terminated from Fb, she continued the same scheme at Nike, the place she labored from 2021 to 2023. At Nike, Furlow-Smiles stole greater than $100,000.
Furlow-Smiles’ lawyer, Phillip Hamilton, had requested the courtroom to not put her behind bars.
In a sentencing memorandum, Hamilton argued that his consumer bought caught up in Fb’s “transfer quick and break issues” tradition and that she was removed from the one one that exploited the corporate’s bills for their very own advantages.
“Barbara … shortly realized that coworkers have been pals with distributors and relied on these distributors to do sure issues, which included offering kickbacks for referring Fb enterprise to them. It was the norm,” Hamilton alleged within the memorandum.
The variety of Variety, Fairness and Inclusion positions like those held by Furlow-Smiles skyrocketed in 2020 after the homicide of George Floyd, when many firms have been compelled to reckon with racial hiring disparities or points inside the office.
However by the point Furlow-Smiles was arrested in December, the positions have been falling out of favor. DEI initiatives grew to become a frequent target of Republican politicians, and when layoffs hit the tech sector, the positions have been typically amongst people who were first slashed.
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