Facebook’s former chief inclusion officer stole more than $4 million from the company
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Barbara Furlow-Smiles, Facebook’s former executive director of diversity, equity and inclusion, has been found guilty of stealing more than $4 million from the company, which she spent on a “lavish lifestyle.”
Through her position, Furlow-Smiles had access to the company’s credit cards and was able to independently submit purchase requests and approve invoices for suppliers. As noted in statement prosecutors, “driven by greed, she used her time (as director—Kommersant) to organize a complex criminal scheme in which fictitious sellers paid her kickbacks in cash. She even implicated relatives, friends and other accomplices in her crimes, all in order to finance a luxurious lifestyle through fraud rather than hard and honest work.”
She forced Facebook to pay numerous individuals for goods and services that were never provided to the company. The woman achieved her goal in two ways. Basically, she linked Facebook credit cards to PayPal, Venmo or Cash App accounts and transferred money from the company cards to her friends and acquaintances. They then returned most of the funds received to her – either in cash or by transfer to the card of her husband or other relatives. However, the participants in the scheme never knew that they initially received money from Facebook accounts. And in order to justify the company’s expenses, the culprit compiled fictitious reports.
The company’s second method of defrauding the company involved hiring fake suppliers of goods and services owned by Furlow-Smiles’ friends and acquaintances. She ordered something from them at inflated prices, and they then returned to her most of the amount of the order, which was never actually fulfilled.
Sometimes she simply paid for her own expenses using Facebook cards. So the company, without suspecting this, paid for a custom-made portrait of Furlow-Smiles for almost $10 thousand. Another $18 thousand from the company’s accounts went to pay a preschool institution for her child’s education.
The investigation into this case was conducted by the FBI. Furlow-Smiles will be sentenced on March 19, 2024.
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