Facebook and Nike DEI manager gets prison for fraud

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and Nike DEI manager gets prison for ******

Barbara Furlow-Smiles attends the 2020 Sisters’ Awards at Skirball Cultural Center on March 08, 2020 in Los Angeles, California.

Robin L. Marshall | Getty Images

A former diversity manager at

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and Nike was sentenced to five years and three months in prison for

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from those companies that had been earmarked for DEI initiatives, federal prosecutors said.

Georgia resident Barbara Furlow-Smiles, who pleaded guilty to

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in the case in December, stole more than $4.9 million from

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“utilizing a scheme involving fraudulent vendors, fake invoices, and cash kickbacks,”

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said in a statement.

“After being terminated from

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, she brazenly continued the ****** as a DEI leader at Nike, where she stole another six-figure sum from their diversity program,” Buchanan said.

Furlow-Smiles, 38, used the money she stole “to fund a luxury lifestyle in California, Georgia and Oregon,” according to Buchanan’s office, which had asked a judge to sentence her to 6½ years.

She was a lead strategist and global head of employee resource groups and diversity engagement at

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, the subsidiary of Meta. She was not

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’s top executive for diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.

Prosecutors said that while at

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she linked

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, Venmo and Cash App accounts to her

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credit cards and then used those accounts to pay her friends, relatives, and others for purported goods and services for the company that were never delivered.

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“The vast majority of the money” that went to those other people was kicked back to Furlow-Smiles, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors in a sentencing memo said that Meta determined that Furlow-Smiles began the scheme within months of joining the company in 2017, and that an investigation found she had “manipulated individuals who were close to, and trusted her, including former interns,” who considered her a mentor.

After she was fired from

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in mid-2021, Furlow-Smiles worked for Nike from November of that year to February 2023 as senior director of diversity, equity & inclusion.

While there, she ********* a theft scheme similar to the one she did at

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, prosecutors said.

Furlow-Smiles, who lives in Marietta, was sentenced Monday in Atlanta federal court. District Judge Steven Grimberg also ordered her to pay restitution of $4.98 million to

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, and another $121,000 to Nike.

Meta previously told CNBC that the company cooperated with law enforcement in the investigation of Furlow-Smiles, who must report to prison by July 22.

Prosecutors in their sentencing memo said that in addition to the money Furlow-Smiles stole from the company, Meta lost more than $4.5 million “in addition to other expenses, such as attorney’s fees, which were incurred as a result of Meta having to uncover and investigate her ****** scheme.”

“As Meta notes, ‘the harm from [Furlow-Smiles’] ********* conduct cannot be measured purely in financial terms,'” prosecutors recounted in their memo. “Her ‘******* also resulted in anguish amongst those employees that worked closely with her.'”

Nike told prosecutors that she was “entrusted as a leader for [the] company, that she would embody the value of ‘Doing the Right Thing’ which is one of NIKE’s key maxims,” the prosecutor said in their memo. “As Nike explains, ‘[t]o say that Ms. Furlow-Smiles violated our trust would be an understatement. The ****** committed by Ms. Furlow-Smiles violated the trust of and devastated the employees who managed and worked with her.’ “

Nike also told prosecutors her “complete lack of accountability or remorse was incredibly disappointing,” according to the memo.

A lawyer for Furlow-Smiles did not have an immediate comment.

A spokesperson for Meta declined to comment and referred CNBC to the press release issued in the case by prosecutors.

Nike did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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****** and false statements,Breaking News: Politics,Politics,Nike Inc,Collusion,Securities ******,Atlanta,Meta Platforms Inc,Laws,******,Social media,Apparel Retail,Business,***********,business news
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#Nike #DEI #manager #prison #******

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