DOJ charges Democratic congresswoman with stealing $5 million in COVID relief money

The Justice Department announced an indictment Wednesday against Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, a Florida Democrat, accusing her of bilking the government of $5 million in pandemic funds and using the money to boost a previous congressional campaign.

Prosecutors said the government overpaid her family company $5 million for a COVID-19 vaccination staffing contract. She and her brother Edwin Cherfilus then “conspired to steal that $5 million” by obfuscating its source.

The prosecutors said she siphoned “a substantial portion” of the money into her campaign for Congress in 2021, when she was seeking to fill the seat of the late Rep. Alcee Hastings. Prosecutors said Ms. Cherfilus-McCormick funneled some of the contract money to friends and relatives, who then donated back to her campaign.