MIAMI — A Miami federal grand jury indicted U.S. Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, D-Florida, along with several others, for “stealing federal disaster funds, laundering the proceeds and using the money to support her 2021 congressional campaign,” the U.S. Department of Justice announced in a news release on Wednesday.
Prosecutors said Cherfilus-McCormick, 46, and her brother Edwin Cherfilus, 51, both of Miramar, received a FEMA-funded COVID-19 vaccination staffing contract through their family healthcare company in 2021 and got a $5 million overpayment that July.
Cherfilus-McCormick and co-conspirators “conspired to steal that $5 million and routed it through multiple accounts to disguise its source,” prosecutors said, saying that “a substantial portion of the misappropriated funds” went to her 2021 congressional campaign and for “personal benefit.”
The congresswoman is also accused of working with Nadege Leblanc, 46, of Miramar, of using the FEMA funds in a straw donor scheme and prosecutors said her 2021 tax preparer, David K. Spencer, 41, of Davie, conspired to file a false federal tax return.
Prosecutors said they “falsely claimed political spending and other personal expenses as business deductions and inflated charitable contributions in order to reduce her tax obligations.”
“Using disaster relief funds for self-enrichment is a particularly selfish, cynical crime,” U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said in Wednesday evening’s news release. “No one is above the law, least of all powerful people who rob taxpayers for personal gain. We will follow the facts in this case and deliver justice.”
Cherfilus-McCormick, who took office in 2022 to succeed longtime U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings after his death, faces up to 53 years in prison, prosecutors said.
Here is a statement from attorneys David Oscar Markus, Margot Moss and Melissa Madrigal:
“Congresswoman Cherfilus-McCormick is a committed public servant, who is dedicated to her constituents. We will fight to clear her good name.”
A colleague, U.S. Rep. Greg Steube, R-Florida, announced a plan to bring a motion to censure Cherfilus-McCormick on Thursday.
This is a developing story. Stay with Local 10 News and Local10.com for updates.
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