Ex-Facebook diversity manager pleads guilty to bilking $4M from company in kickback scheme: feds

A former Facebook diversity program manager pleaded guilty to scamming the social media giant out of more than $4 million through a scheme in which she faked business deals in exchange for kickbacks, the Justice Department said.

Barbara Furlow-Smiles, who served as lead strategist and global head of employee resource groups and diversity engagement at Facebook, used the stolen funds to live an extravagant lifestyle that spanned from California to Georgia, prosecutors said.

From approximately January 2017 to September 2021, Furlow-Smiles led Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs at Facebook and was responsible for developing and executing DEI initiatives, operations, and engagement programs,” according to the DOJ.

The feds said Furlow-Smiles, who had access to company credit cards and the ability to approve invoices as part of her role at the company, “caused Facebook to pay numerous individuals,” including her friends and relatives, “for goods and services never provided to the company.”

Those individuals would later funnel kickbacks to Furlow-Smiles.

Those allegedly recruited to participate in the kickback scheme included some of Furlow-Smiles’ former interns, her “university tutor,” a hair stylist, babysitters and nannies, the feds said.