{"id":45797,"date":"2025-11-20T08:13:17","date_gmt":"2025-11-20T08:13:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/45797\/"},"modified":"2025-11-20T08:13:17","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T08:13:17","slug":"florida-rep-sheila-cherfilus-mccormick-accused-of-stealing-5m-in-fema-funds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/45797\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick accused of stealing $5M in FEMA funds"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-Fla.) was hit with a federal indictment Wednesday, accusing her of stealing $5 million in Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) funds to support her 2021 congressional campaign.<\/p>\n

Cherfilus-McCormick, who has been under investigation by the House Ethics Committee since December 2023, was indicted by a federal grand jury in Miami and faces up to 53 years in prison if convicted.<\/p>\n

\"CongresswomanRep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick is accused of stealing $5 million in Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) funds to support her 2021 congressional campaign. TNS<\/p>\n

\u201cUsing disaster relief funds for self-enrichment is a particularly selfish, cynical crime,\u201d Attorney General Pam Bondi\u00a0said in a statement<\/a>. \u201cNo one is above the law, least of all powerful people who rob taxpayers for personal gain.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will follow the facts in this case and deliver justice.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Justice Department alleges that Cherfilus-McCormick, 46, and several co-defendants, including her brother, Edwin Cherfilus, 51, \u201cconspired to steal\u201d an overpayment of $5 million in FEMA funds their family health-care company received in July 2021 as part of a COVID-19 vaccination staffing contract.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The defendants allegedly routed the funds \u201cthrough multiple accounts to disguise its source\u201d and used \u201ca substantial portion of the misappropriated funds \u2026 as candidate contributions\u201d to Cherfilus-McCormick\u2019s 2021 congressional campaign.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cherfilus-McCormick and another co-defendant, Nadege Leblanc, 46, further schemed to utilize \u201cstraw donors\u201d to contribute the stolen money to the Florida Democrat\u2019s campaign, according to prosecutors.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The congresswoman and her tax preparer, David K. Spencer, 41, are also charged with conspiring to file a false federal tax return for allegedly falsely marking political spending and other personal expenses as business deductions \u2014 and inflating Cherfilus-McCormick\u2019s charitable contributions to ease her tax obligations.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cToday\u2019s indictment shows no one is above the law,\u201d US Attorney Jason Reding Qui\u00f1ones of the Southern District of Florida said in a statement. \u201cThis indictment reflects our Office\u2019s commitment to follow the facts, apply the law, and protect the American taxpayer.<\/p>\n

\u201cPublic money belongs to the American people,\u201d he added. \u201cWhen FEMA funds are diverted for personal or political gain, it erodes trust and harms us all.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"FEMAThe defendants allegedly routed the FEMA funds \u201cthrough multiple accounts to disguise its source\u201d AP<\/p>\n

Cherfilus-McCormick was first elected to serve Florida\u2019s 20th District in Congress in 2022, replacing the late Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-Fla.), who died in 2021.<\/p>\n

During that campaign, Cherfilus-McCormick aroused suspicion by personally loaning her campaign more than $6 million and then paying herself back to the tune of roughly $2.5 million,\u00a0Federal Election Commission filings show.<\/a><\/p>\n

The Florida Division of Emergency Management claimed in a December 2024 lawsuit against the health care company owned by Cherfilus-McCormick\u2019s family \u2014 Trinity Healthcare Services \u2013 that it overcharged the state by nearly $5.8 million for work done during the pandemic and refused to give the money back.<\/p>\n

Cherfilus-McCormick was the CEO of Trinity at the time of the overpayment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The congresswoman\u2019s office did not immediately respond to The Post\u2019s request for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-Fla.) was hit with a federal indictment Wednesday, accusing her of stealing $5 million in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":45798,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[303,5025,3640,396,9,11,10,87,7316,58],"class_list":["post-45797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-crime","tag-fema","tag-florida","tag-fraud","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-politics","tag-us-house-of-representatives","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45797"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45797\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}