A federal grand jury indicted Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D., Fla.) and her brother on Wednesday for allegedly laundering millions of dollars of taxpayer funds to her political campaign in 2021, money she then used to win a seat in Congress by just five votes.
Cherfilus-McCormick served as CEO of her family-owned health care company, Trinity Health Care Services, when it submitted 17 false invoices to the Florida Department of Emergency Management in 2021 on a FEMA-funded COVID-19 contract. Those false invoices—all of which were submitted by her brother, Edwin Cherfilus—netted the company $5.7 million in taxpayer funds for work it was not entitled to and had not earned, the Washington Free Beacon reported. But instead of returning the stolen funds, Trinity doled out $6.2 million in “profit sharing” fees to Cherfilus-McCormick, much of which landed in her campaign account through a series of loans and illegal straw donations, prosecutors alleged.
“Using disaster relief funds for self-enrichment is a particularly selfish, cynical crime,” Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in a statement. “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 faces up to 53 years in prison for her role in the brazen scheme.
When asked about his role in the scheme in August, Edwin Cherfilus told the Free Beacon that “any politically motivated allegations of wrongdoing are false and slanderous.” He faces up to 35 years in prison, the Department of Justice said Wednesday.
From the taxpayer funds she’s alleged to have stolen, Cherfilus-McCormick doled out more than $4.2 million in loans to her 2021 and 2022 campaigns, efforts that raised less than $280,000 from people not named Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick. Prosecutors allege Cherfilus-McCormick also engaged in a straw donor scheme to funnel more stolen funds to her campaign by giving portions of the bounty to friends and relatives, who then cut checks to her campaign as if using their own money.
Had she not bankrolled her campaign with allegedly stolen taxpayer money, it’s unlikely the Florida Democrat would have secured a victory in the December 2021 primary election she won by just five votes. Cherfilus-McCormick took office the following month after sailing to victory in her deep-blue district.
Watchdog attorney Dan Backer, who filed a criminal referral in August to Florida attorney general James Uthmeier demanding he prosecute Cherfilus-McCormick for her role in the scheme, told the Free Beacon there is “zero question she did the crime, and now she’ll do the time.”
“Cherfilus-McCormick isn’t entitled to steal taxpayer money to line her pockets as if they’re SNAP benefits,” Backer said. “It’s brazen, unmitigated corruption of the worst order. I congratulate Bondi on taking swift, decisive action. I hope the Federal Election Commission and Uthmeier will not ignore her other acts and hold her accountable as well.”
Cherfilus-McCormick’s office did not return a request for comment.
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