Cherfilus-McCormick Guilty Of Stealing, Laundering FEMA Funds, House Ethics Probe Finds

By Liv Caputo Grace Panetta, The 19th, Florida Phoenix

March 27, 2026

U.S. Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, a Florida Democrat, could be expelled from Congress for stealing millions in disaster aid payments laundered through her campaign account, according to a House panel’s Friday findings.

The bipartisan House Ethics subcommittee declared Cherfilus-McCormick guilty on 25 of 27 ethics charges, hours after she withstood a lengthy hearing into her alleged double-dealings. It was the committee’s first public tribunal in nearly 16 years.

“After careful deliberation that lasted until well past midnight, the adjudicatory subcommittee found that [25 counts] had been proven,” the group’s Friday morning press release reads. “Shortly after the House returns from the April recess, the full Committee will hold a hearing to determine what, if any, sanction would be appropriate for the Committee to recommend.”

These penalties could include censure, reprimand, fine, suspension, or expulsion.

The findings don’t bode well for the three-term representative. She faces federal criminal charges in Florida after the Justice Department in November indicted her for allegedly laundering up to $5 million of Federal Emergency Management Agency dollars.

Her family’s health care company had worked with FEMA through a COVID-19 vaccination contract, but received a $5 million overpayment. Instead of returning the dollars, prosecutors allege that Cherfilus-McCormick funneled the money through a series of accounts before it settled in her 2022 campaign account.

During Thursday’s marathon hearing — six hours — counsel claimed she “returned the money to herself in full,” NBC reported. The findings are the result of a months-long Ethics Committee investigation into the 47-year-old.

A September 2023 congressional report had already found that Cherfilus-McCormick’s income in 2021 was more than $6 million higher than in 2020.

Ethics hearings are traditionally private affairs. But Thursday’s inquiry was made public because Cherfilus-McCormick is denying the allegations and has declined to resign.

Former U.S. Rep. Charlie Rangel, a New York Democrat, was the last congressional member to be publicly questioned by the Ethics Committee. That was 2010, and the ex-Ways and Means chairman was found guilty of 11 ethics charges alleging financial misuse.

According to PBS, these included failing to report income on a Dominican rental property, using House letterhead to solicit money for a college center named after him, and using a rent-controlled apartment in New York City for his campaign.

Cherfilus-McCormick represents Florida’s 20th Congressional District. It spans the coastal stretch from Fort Lauderdale to West Palm Beach.

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