House Dem Indicted in $5M FEMA Fraud

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.

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.

“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.

“We will follow the facts in this case and deliver justice.”

The Justice Department alleges that Cherfilus-McCormick, 46, and several co-defendants, including her brother, Edwin Cherfilus, 51, “conspired to steal” 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.

The defendants allegedly routed the funds “through multiple accounts to disguise its source” and used “a substantial portion of the misappropriated funds … as candidate contributions” to Cherfilus-McCormick’s 2021 congressional campaign.

Cherfilus-McCormick and another co-defendant, Nadege Leblanc, 46, further schemed to utilize “straw donors” to contribute the stolen money to the Florida Democrat’s campaign, according to prosecutors.

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 — and inflating Cherfilus-McCormick’s charitable contributions to ease her tax obligations.

“Today’s indictment shows no one is above the law,” US Attorney Jason Reding Quiñones of the Southern District of Florida said in a statement. “This indictment reflects our Office’s commitment to follow the facts, apply the law, and protect the American taxpayer.

“Public money belongs to the American people,” he added. “When FEMA funds are diverted for personal or political gain, it erodes trust and harms us all.”

Cherfilus-McCormick was first elected to serve Florida’s 20th District in Congress in 2022, replacing the late Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-Fla.), who died in 2021.

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, Federal Election Commission filings show.

The Florida Division of Emergency Management claimed in a December 2024 lawsuit against the health care company owned by Cherfilus-McCormick’s family — Trinity Healthcare Services – that it overcharged the state by nearly $5.8 million for work done during the pandemic and refused to give the money back.

Cherfilus-McCormick was the CEO of Trinity at the time of the overpayment.