Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, D-Fla., was indicted Wednesday on charges she stole and laundered $5 million in federal relief funds and used the money for her congressional campaign, the Justice Department said.
In a news release citing the indictment, the Justice Department said that Cherfilus-McCormick, 46, and Edwin Cherfilus, 51, her brother, worked on a staffing contract funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency for Covid vaccinations tied to their family health care company in 2021 and that the company was overpaid by $5 million in relief funds.
She and her brother are accused of conspiring to steal the overpayment and route it through various accounts to conceal its origins. Cherfilus-McCormick is alleged to have used the money for her own enrichment and to fund a significant part of her congressional campaign.
Cherfilus-McCormick won a special election in January 2022 to fill the seat of the late Democratic Rep. Alcee Hastings. She won 72.3% of the vote in that year’s general election and was re-elected again last year, when she ran uncontested.
The Justice Department said Cherfilus-McCormick and another defendant, Nadege Leblanc, 46, also used straw donors to secure additional campaign contributions, funneling other disaster relief money from the FEMA-funded contract to friends and relatives who then made donations to the campaign as if they were contributing their own money.
Cherfilus-McCormick and a man who is alleged to have prepared her 2021 taxes are also charged with filing a false federal tax return for that year, according to the Justice Department.
Cherfilus-McCormick’s congressional office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. She did not cast a vote in a series of roll call votes Wednesday night in the House.
Her legal team said in a statement that she “is a committed public servant, who is dedicated to her constituents. We will fight to clear her good name.”
Cherfilus-McCormick has been under investigation by the House Ethics Committee after it received a referral from the nonpartisan Office of Congressional Conduct, or OCC, that found “there is substantial reason to believe that Rep. Cherfilus-McCormick requested community project funding that would be directed to a for-profit entity.”
The OCC, formerly the Office of Congressional Ethics, referred Cherfilus-McCormick to the bipartisan Ethics Committee in May 2024.
The OCC is an independent, nonpartisan office that reviews allegations of misconduct against members and can refer matters to the Ethics Committee, a bipartisan panel of five lawmakers from each party.
Under House rules, the Ethics Committee was required to make the OCC report public in May 2025 because it had not concluded its own investigation. The report did not provide specifics about the community project funding or the for-profit entity.
Cherfilus-McCormick denied wrongdoing at the time, telling Politico in a statement that the committee’s “referral for further review does not imply that any violation has occurred.”
The Ethics Committee said in July that it had unanimously voted to re-authorize a subcommittee to probe allegations against Cherfilus-McCormick.
Attorney General Pam Bondi called Cherfilus-McCormick “selfish” in a statement about the federal charges.
“Using disaster relief funds for self-enrichment is a particularly selfish, cynical crime,” Bondi said. “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.”
A federal grand jury in Miami handed up the indictment, the Justice Department said.
Cherfilus-McCormick is not the only lawmaker to face an indictment this year.
Rep. LaMonica McIver, D-N.J., was indicted in June after she clashed with law enforcement officers in connection with the Trump administration’s detention of undocumented immigrants. She pleaded not guilty to forcibly impeding and interfering with federal law enforcement officers at an ICE facility in her state.
