WASHINGTON, DC - What is it with Democrats and playing fast and loose with taxpayer money? The latest lawmaker to find herself in hot water is Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, a Florida Democrat who was indicted this past week and accused of stealing $5 million in Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) funds and using the money to fund her 2021 congressional campaign, The New York Post reports.
Lest anyone suggest this indictment is a result of President Trump targeting Democrats, Cherfilus-McCormick has been under investigation by the House Ethics Committee since 2023. She faces 53 years in prison if convicted. The fact that the indictment took place in a Florida courtroom means she won’t necessarily have the benefit of a left-leaning court.
“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 indictment alleges that Cherfilus-McCormick, who at 46 should probably know better, and several co-defendants, including her brother, Edwin Cherfilus, 51, “conspired to steal” a $5 million overpayment of FEMA funds their family’s health care company received in July 2021 as part of a COVID-19 vaccination staffing contract.
The scheme involved the defendants laundering money “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, aided and abetted by another co-defendant, Nadege Leblanc, 46, devised a scheme to use “straw donors” to contribute the stolen funds to her campaign, prosecutors alleged.
Cherfilus-McCormick and her tax accountant, David K. Spencer, 41, are also charged with conspiring to file a false federal tax return, where they falsely marked political spending and other personal expenses as business deductions, while overstating Cherfilus-McCormick’s charitable contributions to lower her tax obligations.
“Today’s indictment shows no one is above the law,” U.S. Attorney Jason Reding Quinones 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 continued. “When FEMA funds are diverted for personal or political gain, it erodes trust and harms us all.”
Cherfilus-McCormick was elected in 2022 to replace Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-FL), who died in 2021.
FEC filings showed that Cherfilus-McCormick loaned her campaign over $6 million and then repaid herself approximately $2.5 million.
In December 2024, the Florida Division of Emergency Management sued the health care company owned by the Cherfilus-McCormick family, Trinity Healthcare Services, alleging the company overcharged the state by nearly $5.8 million for work done during the pandemic, then refused to refund the money. Cherfilus-McCormick was CEO of Trinity at the time of the overpayment.
In a statement Thursday, Cherfilus-McCormick called the indictment “an unjust, baseless, sham,” and insisted she was “innocent.” She called the timing of the indictment “curious” and said it was “clearly meant ot distract from far more pressing national issues,” Politico reported.
Cherfilus-McCormick has been removed from her leadership position on the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee “while the matter is ongoing,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries’ office said Thursday morning. Indicted lawmakers are to relinquish committee leadership positions under Democratic caucus rules.
As expected, Cherfilus-McCormick also pulled out the race card.
Cherfilus-McCormick is of Haitian descent.
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