U.S. Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick has been indicted on federal charges of stealing federal disaster funds, laundering the proceeds and using the money to support her 2021 congressional campaign.
Charged along with the Democratic Broward-Palm Beach county congresswoman is her brother, Edwin Cherfilus, according to a statement Wednesday evening from the U.S. Department of Justice.
The charges concern the family-run company Trinity Healthcare Services, which received a contract from the state to conduct COVID-19 testing and outreach in minority communities during the pandemic. The state overpaid on the contract by $5 million, which was the subject of a civil suit by the Division of Emergency Management that was settled earlier this year.
Cherfilus-McCormick is the former CEO of the family-owned company.
The Justice Department statement said that “the defendants conspired to steal that $5 million and routed it through multiple accounts to disguise its source. Prosecutors allege that a substantial portion of the misappropriated funds was used as candidate contributions to Cherfilus-McCormick’s 2021 congressional campaign and for the personal benefit of the defendants.”
The government also said Cherfilus-McCormick and Nadege Leblanc arranged additional contributions using straw donors, and that funneled other money that came from the Federal Emergency Management Agency-funded contract to “friends and relatives who then donated to the campaign as if using their own money.”
Cherfius-McCormick, Cherfilus and Leblanc are all from Miramar.
The indictment also charges that Cherfilus-McCormick and her 2021 tax preparer, David K. Spencer, with conspiring to file a false federal tax return, the statement said. The Justice Department said they “falsely claimed political spending and other personal expenses as business deductions and inflated charitable contributions in order to reduce her tax obligations.”
Cherfilus-McCormick’s chief of staff didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Her communications director said they had no immediate comment Wednesday evening.
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, a former Florida attorney general, said the indictment shows that no one is above the law “least of all powerful people who rob taxpayers for personal gain.”
Bondi said that “using disaster relief funds for self-enrichment is a particularly selfish, cynical crime.”
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