Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick Cut Off After Fraud Allegations Explode
Former Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick is now blocked from doing business with the federal government after the Department of Homeland Security moved to suspend her in the wake of major fraud allegations.
The Florida Democrat, who resigned from Congress after a House ethics probe intensified, has been charged with stealing $5 million in COVID-19 FEMA funds and making illegal campaign contributions. The suspension means she cannot receive federal contracts, grants, aid, or other taxpayer-backed money while the designation is in place. Her brother, Edwin Cherfilus, along with other associates and affiliated entities named in the federal indictment, was also suspended by DHS.
In a blunt statement, DHS General Counsel James Percival did not sugarcoat the accusations. “Former Congresswoman Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick abused Americans’ trust in the most egregious way possible,” he said. “She manipulated the COVID-19 crisis to funnel over $5 million of FEMA relief funds to her and her family members.”
He added, “This is outright fraud,” and said, “That’s exactly what a federal grand jury and the U.S. House of Representatives found.” Percival also said he is “proud that my office is taking the first step to ensure she is held accountable and American taxpayers’ money is protected from further misuse.”
Cherfilus-McCormick was indicted by a Miami grand jury in November 2025 for allegedly stealing $5 million from FEMA. She stepped down just before the House Ethics Committee was expected to recommend punishment over claims that disaster relief money was funneled through several companies and into her campaign coffers. The committee said it found 18 campaign finance violations, five counts of false financial disclosures, three counts of misusing official funds and one count of lack of candor.
She pushed back and said, “This was not a fair process.” In her resignation statement, she claimed the committee “refused my new attorney’s reasonable request for time to prepare my defense.” She also wrote, “I simply cannot stand by and allow my due process rights to be trampled on, and my good name to be tarnished.”
DHS said the suspension lines up with President Donald Trump’s executive order creating the Task Force to Eliminate Fraud. The task force is led by Vice President JD Vance and has been ordered to go after fraud, waste, and abuse in federal benefit programs and protect taxpayer-funded safety-net programs.
Vance said last week that the group has been “working around the clock to root out fraudsters who have taken advantage of Americans’ generosity for far too long.” He also said the task force has exposed 447 California hospices suspected of more than $600 million in fraud and helped push more than 560,000 fraudulent COVID-era loans worth $22 billion to the Treasury for collection.
Fox News Digital reached out to Cherfilus-McCormick’s campaign for comment.