MENLO PARK, Calif. (TND) — A former diversity head for Facebook pleaded guilty to scheming the company out of more than $4 million, the U.S. Attorney’s Office Northern District of Georgiaannounced Tuesday.
Barbara Furlow-Smiles previously served as Lead Strategist, Global Head of Employee Resource Groups and Diversity Engagement at Facebook, Inc., now Meta Platforms, Inc. From 2017 to 2021, she was tasked with implementing diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs throughout the company.
Through her access to company credit cards, Furlow-Smiles created false expenses to outside individuals for goods and services they never provided the company with. These individuals would then give Furlow-Smiles a kickback in cash.
“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,” U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Buchanan said. “Motivated by greed, she used her time to orchestrate an elaborate criminal scheme in which fraudulent vendors paid her kickbacks in cash.”
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Furlow-Smiles also caused Facebook to engage in business with friends and associates who disguised themselves as vendors. These individuals ranged from former interns at another company to babysitters and hair stylists. Once approved by the company, Furlow-Smiles began approving fraudulent purchase invoices, which Facebook paid, allowing the individuals to return a portion of the money to her in cash.
Some payments also went toward paying for services that did not include a cash kickback, including $10,000 for a specialty portrait and $18,000 in preschool tuition. To conceal her transactions, Furlow-Smiles used the postal service and directed company employees to make payments to those she owed money.
Facebook ended up spending more than $4 million on the scheme, which allowed Furlow-Smiles to “live a luxury lifestyle in California and Georgia.”
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In a statement to The National Desk (TND), Meta explained it is continuing to cooperate with law enforcement on the matter.
In a similar incident, a former Jacksonville Jaguars employee used a company credit card to recode his personal transactions to match those which the team would normally expect on any given month, stealing more than $22 million, a lawsuit filed last week claims.
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