High-Profile Executive's Fall from Grace
Barbara Furlow-Smiles, once a beacon of corporate diversity and inclusion at Facebook and Nike, faced a stark downfall. Her elaborate financial deceit crafted during her tenure at firms associated with Facebook and Nike culminated in a sentence handed down recently. Charged with wire fraud, Furlow-Smiles will now serve five years and three months in federal prison for orchestrating a $5 million fraud scheme.
The Scheme Unfolded
As a diversity program manager at Facebook, Furlow-Smiles developed and executed programs to foster diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). Her position afforded her significant trust, including access to company credit cards and the authority to greenlight vendor invoices. Exploiting this trust, she engineered a fraud involving fictitious vendors and fake invoices, enriching herself at the company's expense.
Her fraudulent activities spanned several years, from January 2017 to September 2021. Using her elevated position, she redirected company funds for goods and services toward herself, employing sophisticated methods to cover her tracks. These methods included linking her personal PayPal, Venmo, and Cash App accounts to company credit cards to make unauthorized payments. She further fabricated expense reports to justify these transactions.
The Web of Deceit
The intricacy of Furlow-Smiles' scheme involved recruiting individuals from her personal circle, including friends, relatives, and former colleagues, to partake in her fraudulent activities. These collaborators, paid under the guise of vendors providing services to Facebook, were kickback conduits, funneling most of the received funds back to Furlow-Smiles through various illicit means.
Continued Fraud at Nike
Even after her termination from Facebook, Furlow-Smiles perniciously replicated her fraudulent practices at Nike. Appointed as the Senior Director of DEI, she wasted no time in misappropriating funds intended for DEI initiatives and events. By linking corporate cards to her personal transaction accounts and submitting bogus expense reports, she siphoned over $120,000 from Nike, continuing her spree of financial misconduct.
Justice Served
Ultimately, Furlow-Smiles' fraudulent empire crumbled under scrutiny. Facing justice, she pleaded guilty to wire fraud on December 11, 2023. Her sentencing reflects not only the financial repercussions of her actions, amounting to over $5 million stolen from Facebook and Nike combined, but also the betrayal of trust central to her conviction. Following her incarceration, she is mandated to serve three years of supervised release and make restitution payments to her former employers, totaling over $5 million, in an attempt to amend the financial damage inflicted.
The U.S. District Judge Steven D. Grimberg's decision to convict Furlow-Smiles underscores the severe consequences of exploiting corporate positions for personal gain. The FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) led the investigation, alongside the diligent prosecution by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Stephen H. McClain and Bernita B. Malloy, illustrates the commitment of legal institutions to uphold justice. This case is a stark reminder of the importance of ethical conduct within corporate roles, particularly those vested with significant trust and responsibility. Furlow-Smiles' tale of deceit and downfall narrates a cautionary tale intertwining ambition, confidence, and the inevitable reckoning of justice.
