Congresswoman Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, Fla.-20th, hosts a news conference regarding the ongoing crisis in Haiti on March 11, 2024, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
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A federal grand jury charged U.S. Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, D-Fla., with stealing $5 million in Covid-19 disaster funds — a chunk of which was then illegally contributed to her 2021 congressional campaign, the Department of Justice said Wednesday.
Cherfilus-McCormick and her brother, Edwin Cherfilus, tried to launder the money through multiple accounts to disguise its source, the DOJ said, citing the indictment issued in U.S. District Court in Miami.
The siblings obtained the money in July 2021, after the family health-care company where they worked received a $5 million overpayment from FEMA, which funded the company’s Covid vaccination staffing contract, according to the DOJ.
Cherfilus-McCormick and another defendant, Nadege Leblanc, are also accused of orchestrating a “straw donor” scheme in which money from the FEMA contract was sent to friends and relatives, who then donated it back to her campaign for Congress.
Cherfilus-McCormick joined the House in 2022 after winning a special election that January to fill late Rep. Alcee Hastings’ seat representing Florida’s 20th Congressional District.
The congresswoman and her 2021 tax preparer, David Spencer, are also charged in the indictment with conspiring to file a false tax return, the DOJ said. They claimed personal and political expenses as business deductions and “inflated charitable contributions in order to reduce her tax obligations,” the indictment alleges.
Cherfilus-McCormick faces a possible maximum sentence of 53 years in prison if convicted, the DOJ said in a press release. Actual sentences are often significantly lower than the maximums due to judges’ discretion and federal sentencing guidelines.
“Using disaster relief funds for self-enrichment is a particularly selfish, cynical crime,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement.
“No one is above the law, least of all powerful people who rob taxpayers for personal gain,” Bondi said. “We will follow the facts in this case and deliver justice.”
A spokesperson for Cherfilus-McCormick did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
Her attorneys, David Oscar Markus, Margot Moss and Melissa Madrigal, said in a joint statement that she “is a committed public servant, who is dedicated to her constituents. We will fight to clear her good name.”
Cherfilus-McCormick has been under investigation by the House Ethics Committee, the panel revealed in late May.
The Office of Congressional Conduct sent a referral to that committee in May 2024, laying out a number of possible violations. Cherfilus-McCormick “may have requested community project funding that would be directed to a for-profit entity,” the office said in that referral.
Edwin Cherfilus faces up to 35 years in prison if convicted of the charges announced Wednesday, while Spencer faces up to 33 years, and Leblanc faces a 10-year maximum sentence.