A former diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) manager at Facebook and Nike will serve 63 months in prison and three years of supervised release as part of his sentencing for more than $5 million in wire fraud, federal prosecutors announced Monday.
Barbara Farlow Smiles, 38, of Marietta, Georgia, reportedly ran an “elaborate scheme involving fraudulent vendors, fictitious paperwork, and cash kickbacks.” Farlow Smiles must now “pay restitution of $4,981,783.58 to Facebook and $121,054.50 to Nike, for a total of $5,102,838.08,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia announced. stated in the press release.
Farlow Smiles worked as a DEI at Facebook (now Meta) from January 2017 to September 2021, which allowed him access to the company’s credit cards. She then linked Facebook to her PayPal, Venmo and CashApp accounts to pay her friends, relatives and other parties for goods and services they never received, according to her press release, prosecutors said. authorities claim.
Prosecutors say she created fraudulent expense reports and invoices for goods and services that did not exist and received kickbacks, often in cash, from individuals when Facebook made payments. She reportedly recruited many people into her scheme, including “her friends, relatives, interns from previous jobs, nannies and babysitters, hairdressers, and college tutors.”
Prosecutors say Farlow Smiles conducted a similar scheme at Nike as a senior DEI director from November 2023 to February 2023 after he was fired from Facebook. Farlow Smiles, who was in charge of Nike’s Juneteenth event in New York, “circumvented the vendor process” by linking his Nike credit card to his PayPal and Venmo accounts. She then used those accounts to make payments to her associates and receive kickbacks that she fraudulently claimed were event fees, prosecutors said. (Related: Facebook’s former diversity manager admits to embezzling more than $4 million from the company)
“In total, Farlow Smiles stole more than $4.9 million from Facebook and more than $120,000 from Nike based on fictitious and fraudulent invoices,” the press release reads in part. “She used the money to fund a lavish lifestyle in California, Georgia and Oregon.”
She pled guilty and was sentenced on December 11, 2023.
Farlow Smiles “considered himself untouchable,” said Kelly Farley, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Atlanta division. As a result, she not only abandons her lucrative career, but also ends up serving time in prison for her excessive greed. ”
