Ex-diversity boss at Facebook, Nike sentenced to five years in prison for orchestrating fake events to steal $5m

An ex-diversity programme manager for Facebook and Nike has been sentenced in the US to five years in prison for stealing more than $5m from her employers. A release from the US Attorney General’s office in Georgia said Barbara Furlow-Smiles (pictured) had set up fake business deals, invoices and events in order to fund a luxury lifestyle. The court ordered her to pay back the monies stolen. “Furlow-Smiles shamelessly violated her position of trust as a DEI executive at Facebook to steal millions from the company utilising a scheme involving fraudulent vendors, fake invoices, and cash kickbacks,” said US Attorney Ryan K. Buchanan. “After being terminated from Facebook, she brazenly continued the fraud as a DEI leader at Nike, where she stole another six-figure sum from their diversity programme.” “As lead strategist at Facebook, Furlow-Smiles’ employer put an extreme amount of trust in her, only to have that trust completely violated,” said Keri Farley, special agent in charge of FBI Atlanta. “After she was fired, she carelessly continued her fraudulent schemes at Nike, thinking she was untouchable. As a result, she not only threw away a lucrative career, but will serve time behind bars for her excessive greed.” Furlow-Smiles pleaded guilty to taking more than $4.9m from Facebook, before taking a six-figure amount from Nike “to fund a luxury lifestyle in California, Georgia, and Oregon,” the DOJ said. Faebook said Furlow-Smiles’ “crimes also resulted in anguish amongst those employees that worked closely with her,” while Nike accused her of “complete lack of accountability or remorse”. Furlow-Smiles had used her access to company credit cards to approve invoices for authorised vendors to pay her friends and relatives for goods and services that were never provided. Individuals involved would then pay kickbacks to Furlow-Smiles. As the senior director of DEI at Nike Furlow-Smiles was responsible for organising a Juneteenth event in New York where she filed counterfeit expenses related to the event. She was sentenced to five years and three months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release.