- A former diversity manager at Facebook and Nike has been sentenced to five years in prison for wire fraud.
- Barbara Farlow Smiles admitted to stealing more than $5 million from businesses.
- Lawyers say she used scammers, fake invoices and cash kickbacks.
A former diversity program manager at Facebook and Nike was sentenced to five years and three months in prison after pleading guilty to stealing more than $5 million to fund a lavish lifestyle.
The sentence for Barbara Farlow Smiles was announced Monday by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Georgia.
“Farlow Smiles shamelessly violated his position of trust as a DEI executive at Facebook, engaging in a scheme involving fraudsters, fake invoices, and cash kickbacks,” said U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Buchanan. He stole millions of dollars from Facebook.”
Buchanan added, “After she was fired from Facebook, she brazenly continued her fraud as Nike's DEI lead, stealing an additional six-figure sum from their diversity program.”
The law firm said Farlow Smiles began the elaborate scam while working at Facebook as a diversity, equity and inclusion executive from 2017 to 2021.
In that role, she had access to the company's credit cards and the authority to authorize purchases and invoices to Facebook's vendors.
According to the statement, she used her position to make payments to friends, family, and other parties on Facebook for goods and services she never provided, and to make false expenditures by submitting false expense reports. It is said that it was hidden.
Once these individuals received the money, they returned most of it in cash to Mr. Farlow Smiles either directly or, in some cases, by Federal Express or by mail, the attorney's office said.
It added that the so-called salespeople included Farlow Smiles' friends, relatives, former interns, nannies and babysitters, hairdressers and even college tutors.
Farlow-Smiles also used the scam to pay more than $18,000 in kindergarten tuition fees and nearly $10,000 to an artist for special photographs.
After being fired from Facebook, Buchanan continued his misconduct in his next role as Nike's DEI leader, saying in a press release that he “felt untouchable.”
Over a six-year period, Farlow Smiles used fake invoices and fake invoices on Facebook to fund a lavish lifestyle in California, Georgia and Oregon, according to his attorney's office. and stole more than $120,000 from Nike.
“As a result, not only did she give up a lucrative career, but she ended up serving time in prison due to her excessive greed,” Buchanan said.
Farlow Smiles was also ordered to pay nearly $5 million in restitution to Facebook and approximately $120,000 to Nike.
Facebook and Nike aren't the only companies to face wire fraud problems.
FTX founder Sam Bankman Fried, former Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes, and former Autonomy CEO Mike Lynch have been found guilty or indicted on wire fraud charges. ing.
The FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center has announced that it will receive a record 880,000 online fraud complaints in 2023, with potential losses exceeding $12.5 billion.