MIAMI — Florida Congresswoman Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick surrendered to authorities Tuesday on charges of stealing a $5 million overpayment of federal disaster relief funds to her family’s health care company — and then using some of that money to funnel $1.14 million to her 2021 congressional campaign and purchase a 3.14-carat yellow diamond ring.

Cherfilus-McCormick, 46, a Democrat, made her first appearance in Miami federal court since she was charged last week in a 15-count conspiracy indictment, including theft of government funds, money laundering, making and receiving straw-donor contributions, and making false statements on a tax return.

The congresswoman appeared in civilian clothes, handcuffed at the wrists. A judge set two bonds: a $25,000 personal surety bond and a separate bond at $35,000. Cherfilus-McCormick is expected to be released later in the day Tuesday after making a $1,750 down payment on the bonds.

As a condition of bond, Cherfilus-McCormick will have to surrender her personal passport but was allowed to retain her congressional passport. However, she may only travel within the Southern District of Florida, the District of Columbia, the Eastern District of Virginia and the District of Maryland.

An arraignment was scheduled for Dec. 29.

The congresswoman’s brother submitted an invoice to the Florida Division of Emergency Management in May 2021 in the amount of $50,578.50 for work performed by the Miramar-based health care company, Trinity Health Care Services, where the siblings worked, according to the indictment returned by a Miami grand jury last Wednesday. Trinity had a contract with the state to provide staffing and other services for COVID-19 vaccination sites funded by the U.S. government.

Two months later, the department added a couple extra zeros and issued a payment of $5,057,850 into a Trinity-affiliated bank account controlled by Cherfilus-McCormick and her brother, Edwin Cherfilus, who is also a defendant in the case. The congresswoman texted her brother a screenshot of the deposit, which “was the result of a clerical error by FDEM,” the indictment says.

The siblings then conspired to launder the money and use the millions for their personal benefit instead of returning it to the state , according to the indictment.

Cherfilus-McCormick, who since 2022 has served a Black-majority congressional district in and around Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach, says she’s falsely accused.

“This is an unjust, baseless, sham indictment — and I am innocent,” she said last week.

The criminal case against her has already prompted Democratic challengers, including former Broward Mayor Dale Holness, to announce their campaigns for the 20th Congressional District seat in the midterm elections next year.

The Florida Division of Emergency Management sued Trinity in civil court over the same overpayment late last year, and her family’s health care company has already agreed to pay back the full $5 million in installments over the next few years, according to a copy of the settlement obtained by the Tallahassee Democrat.

The civil case notwithstanding, the Justice Department is now lobbing new criminal charges against Cherfilus-McCormick and Edwin Cherfilus, who is named as a defendant in the main theft conspiracy count and related money laundering counts. Two other defendants, Nadege Leblanc and David Kofi Spencer, are also accused along with the congresswoman of straw-donor and income tax-related violations, respectively.

All three co-defendants had their first appearances in Miami federal court Friday and were released on bonds. Spencer pleaded not guilty, while the arraignment for Edwin Cherfilus and Leblanc was set for Dec. 5, according to court records.

The indictment alleges that two months after receiving the $5 million, Cherfilus-McCormick and her brother shuffled the money from the health care company’s bank account to various accounts controlled by or connected to the congresswoman.

According to the indictment, those transfers included:

—A $2.4 million check to the bank account of Cherfilus-McCormick’s consulting company.

—A $1.2 million bank transfer to an account controlled by relatives of Cherfilus-McCormick.

—An $830,000 transfer into another account for which the congresswoman was an authorized signer.

—A $334,000 deposit into the bank account of Leblanc, who is accused of having coordinated straw-donor contributions to Cherfilus-McCormick’s congressional campaign starting in June 2021.

—And a $190,000 deposit to a bank account linked to the consulting company of the congresswoman’s brother.

Personal profit and straw donors

The rest of the 15 counts brought against the congresswoman are related to the use of those funds and how they were reported on her and her companies’ federal tax returns prepared by Spencer.

In the flashiest detail of the filing, the indictment accuses the congresswoman of using $109,000 of the funds — moved through bank accounts she controlled — to purchase a 3.14-carat “Fancy Vivid Yellow Diamond” ring on Sept. 1, 2021, about two months after the state’s overpayment to her health care company.

Prosecutors also accuse her of making five transfers totaling $1.14 million from her consulting account — the account that received the $2.4 million in August — to a third bank account “for the benefit of SCM for Congress,” her campaign committee, in September and October.

She is also accused of conspiring to make and receive $25,000 in straw-donor campaign contributions. A “straw donor” refers to money transferred to a campaign through an individual that is not the original source of the funds.

To note, the five straw donors who prosecutors say made fraudulent contributions to the campaign allegedly made those payments in late June, just before the health care company received the $5 million overpayment. The final charges Cherfilus-McCormick is facing are related to her 2021 tax return, in which she claimed $4.6 million in qualifying business expenses and $1.2 million in charitable contributions, which the grand jury alleges are both false.

The congresswoman is planning to fight the charges in court.

“Congresswoman Cherfilus-McCormick is a committed public servant, who is dedicated to her constituents. We will fight to clear her good name,” her attorneys, David Oscar Markus, Margot Moss, Melissa Madrigal and Lauren Krasnoff, said in a joint statement last week.

According to court records, they filed a notice of temporary appearance as the congresswoman’s defense lawyers on Monday, meaning they have not been formally retained.

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