South Florida congresswoman charged with theft of $5 million of government funds

Date: Nov. 19, 2025

Contact: newsroom@ci.irs.gov

MIAMI — A grand jury in Miami, Florida returned an indictment today charging a member of Congress, Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, among others, with conspiracy to convert FEMA funds, laundering the converted FEMA funds, and funneling the funds to her congressional campaign committee in 2021. Representative Cherfilus-McCormick and others are charged with arranging and funding straw donor contributions made to her congressional campaign in 2021. She is also charged with making false statements in her 2021 tax return, falsely and fraudulently reducing her federal tax obligations.

According to court records, Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick of Miramar, Florida, along with her brother, Edwin Cherfilus of Miramar, Florida, worked on behalf of their family healthcare company on a contract with the Florida Division of Emergency Management to staff FEMA-funded Covid-19 vaccination efforts in 2021. While working on that contract, they received a $5 million overpayment in July of 2021, conspired to convert the $5 million overpayment of FEMA funds, and ultimately converted the overpayment to fund Cherfilus-McCormick’s Congressional campaign and for the personal use and enrichment of Cherfilus-McCormick and her co-conspirators. Once the conspirators converted the funds, they laundered the funds through several accounts to conceal the source of the funds and contributed a large portion of the funds to her campaign committee in 2021 as candidate contributions. Cherfilus-McCormick also conspired with Nadege Leblanc, 46, of Miramar, Florida, to funnel other funds from the FEMA-funded Covid-19 contract to friends and family for them to donate to Cherfilus-McCormick’s campaign as if the funds were their own money. Finally, Cherfilus-McCormick also conspired with her 2021 tax preparer David K. Spencer, 41, of Davie, Florida, to falsely reduce her federal tax obligations by falsely characterizing political contributions and other expenses as business expenses, and falsely inflating her charitable contributions to a Maryland-area church, in order to pay substantially less taxes than what she truly owed in her 2021 tax return.

Cherfilus-McCormick is charged with Conspiracy to Commit the Theft of Government Funds; Theft of Government Funds; Conspiracy to Commit Money Laundering; Money Laundering; Conspiracy to Make and Receive Straw Donor Contributions; Making and Receiving Straw Donor Contributions; Conspiracy to Make a False and Fraudulent Statement on a Tax Return; and Aiding and Assisting a False and Fraudulent Statement on a Tax Return. If convicted, Cherfilus-McCormick faces a maximum penalty of 53 years in prison; Edwin Cherfilus faces a maximum penalty of 35 years in prison; Nadege Leblanc faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison; and David K. Spencer faces a maximum penalty of 33 years in prison.

U.S. Attorney Jason A. Reding Quiñones for the Southern District of Florida; Special Agent in Charge Ronald A. Loecker of the IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), Florida Field Office; and Special Agent in Charge Brett D. Skiles of the FBI, Miami Field Office made the announcement.

The IRS-CI and FBI Miami are investigating the case.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Alejandra L. López and Yeney Hernández and DOJ Criminal Division Trial Attorney John P. Taddei are prosecuting the case.

IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) is the law enforcement arm of the IRS, responsible for conducting financial crime investigations, including tax fraud, narcotics trafficking, money laundering, public corruption, healthcare fraud, identity theft and more. IRS-CI special agents are the only federal law enforcement agents with investigative jurisdiction over violations of the Internal Revenue Code, obtaining a 90% federal conviction rate. The agency has 19 field offices located across the U.S. and 14 attaché posts abroad.