by Andrew Kerr at The Washington Free Beacon
Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick allegedly used the stolen funds to win an election by five votes
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…