[ad_1]
Facebook global executive Barbara Furlow-Smiles pled guilty to stealing millions from her former company this week after charging fraudulent invoices over a four-year period.
From January 2017 to September 2021, California and Georgia resident Furlow-Smiles worked as Facebook’s Lead Strategist, Global Head of Employee Resource Groups and Diversity Engagement. Whilst working for Meta, the colleague also asked the company to pay for personal bills. These included her child’s intuition, which came in at $18k and a $10k portrait from an artist.
She defrauded Facebook using a variety of methods
The former social media executive operated her scheme in two ways: looping in friends and family to maximise efficiency. She claimed friends and family were providing services like marketing to Facebook, and then paid them through company credit cards linked to PayPal, Venmo, and Cash App accounts.
But said friends had not provided services and would instead funnel the money back to her or her husband. Furlow-Smiles would then file fake expense reports, prosecutors claim.
On other occasions, friends would give the money back to her in cash form. This was sometimes wrapped in t-shirts to conceal its nature, the Department of Justice said. Another mode of stealing came from giving people contracts and having them pay her back for the job. These included relatives, former interns from a prior job, nannies and babysitters, a hairstylist and her university tutor, lawyers alleged.
Furlow-Smiles also roped in Facebook to pay for personal expenditures like a $10k portrait from an artist and her child’s preschool tuition totalling a further $18k, the court heard.
It is unclear if associates have been charged in connection with the fraud.
Barbara Furlow-Smiles won’t be sentenced until next year
Furlow-Smiles appeared in an Atlanta, Georgia, court on Monday where she pled guilty to the charges posed by the state. The 39-year-old is set to be sentenced on March 19 and was released on a bond of $5,000.
Attorney Ryan K. Buchanan said: “This defendant 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.
“Motivated by greed, she used her time to orchestrate an elaborate criminal scheme in which fraudulent vendors paid her kickbacks in cash. 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.”
Facebook said it’s working with authorities on the case
Facebook, owned by Meta, have released a statement: “We are cooperating with law enforcement on the case regarding this former program manager, and we will continue to do so.”
Keri Farley, Special Agent in Charge of FBI Atlanta, also said: “Furlow-Smiles used lies and deceit to defraud both vendors and Facebook employees. The FBI works hard to make sure greed like this doesn’t pay off and those who commit fraud are held accountable.”
Related Topics
[ad_2]
Deja una respuesta