The brother of U.S. Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick and two other people were released on bond after appearing in Miami federal court on Friday, according to the brother’s attorney.
Cherfilus-McCormick was indicted Wednesday on more than a dozen federal charges of stealing $5 million in federal disaster funds, laundering the proceeds and using the money to support her 2021 election campaign.
Her brother, Edwin Cherfilus, her district office chief of staff, Nadege Leblanc, and her 2021 tax preparer, David K. Spencer, are also charged in the scheme.
Cherfilus self-surrendered Friday morning and appeared in court later that afternoon along with Leblanc and Spencer for a bond hearing, his attorney, Michael Pizzi, told the South Florida Sun Sentinel. He was released on a $10,000 bond.
Pizzi did not have bond information for the other two defendants.
The charges against Cherfilus-McCormick and the other three defendants concern the family-run company Trinity Health Care Services, which received a contract from the state to conduct COVID-19 testing and outreach in minority communities during the pandemic. The state overpaid on the contract by $5 million.
The Justice Department said in a statement Wednesday that Cherfilus-McCormick and her brother conspired to steal that $5 million and routed it through multiple accounts to disguise its source.” With the assistance of Leblanc, they funneled government money to friends and relatives who then donated to Cherfilus-McCormick’s 2021 congressional campaign “as if using their own money.” Spencer then helped her file a false tax return, prosecutors said.
Cherfilus-McCormick has denied the allegations, describing the charges in a statement as “an unjust, baseless, sham indictment.”
She faces up to 53 years in prison if convicted, the DOJ said, while her brother faces up to 35 years, Leblanc up to 10 years and Spencer up to 33 years.
An arraignment for the three defendants is scheduled for Dec. 5.
Cherfilus is “pleading innocent to these charges and he looks forward to being exonerated from these charges when he gets his day in court,” Pizzi said Saturday.
Attorney information for Leblanc was not available. An attorney for Spencer did not return calls or emails Saturday. A man and woman who answered phone numbers associated with Spencer and Leblanc each hung up on a reporter.
Cherfilus-McCormick did not appear in court Friday with the other three co-defendants. Emails and calls requesting information about her own surrender were not returned by her attorneys, chief of staff or a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
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