Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick charged with stealing $5 million in FEMA funds, making illegal campaign contributions

Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, D-Fla., was indicted Wednesday on charges she stole and laundered $5 million in federal relief funds and used the money for her congressional campaign, the Justice Department said

Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, D-Fla., was indicted Wednesday on charges she stole and laundered $5 million in federal relief funds and used the money for her congressional campaign, the Justice Department said.

In a news release citing the indictment, the Justice Department said that Cherfilus-McCormick, 46, and Edwin Cherfilus, 51, her brother, worked on a staffing contract funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency for Covid vaccinations tied to their family health care company in 2021 and that the company was overpaid by $5 million in relief funds.

She and her brother are accused of conspiring to steal the overpayment and route it through various accounts to conceal its origins. Cherfilus-McCormick is alleged to have used the money for her own enrichment and to fund a significant part of her congressional campaign.

Cherfilus-McCormick won a special election in January 2022 to fill the seat of the late Democratic Rep. Alcee Hastings. She won 72.3% of the vote in that year's general election and was re-elected again last year, when she ran uncontested.

The Justice Department said Cherfilus-McCormick and another defendant, Nadege Leblanc, 46, also used straw donors to secure additional campaign contributions, funneling other disaster relief money from the FEMA-funded contract to friends and relatives who then made donations to the campaign as if they were contributing their own money.