New Times artist conception/Photos by U.S. House of Representatives
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Last week, a federal grand jury in Miami indicted Democratic U.S. Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick on charges that she stole millions in federal disaster-relief funds.
A federal indictment accuses Cherfilus-McCormick, 46, and her brother, Edwin Cherfilus, 51, of conspiring to steal $5 million in Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) funds that were accidentally overpaid to their family health care company in 2021. The money was allegedly “routed through multiple accounts to disguise its source” before being funneled into Cherfilus-McCormick’s congressional campaign.
On Tuesday afternoon, the Broward Democratic congresswoman was scheduled to make her first appearance in a Miami federal court and reportedly surrender herself to authorities.
But while much of the criminal case focuses on the money Cherfilus-McCormick allegedly funneled to her campaign, the indictment also highlights a more personal extravagance: a $109,000 gem, to be exact.
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According to the indictment, Cherfilus-McCormick also used some of the federal disaster money to purchase a more than $100,000 3.14-carat “Fancy Vivid Yellow Diamond” ring from a jewelry store headquartered in New York City. She allegedly used a $109,000 cashier’s check to buy the ring on September 1, 2021.
Her official portrait on the U.S. House of Representatives site, among other places, shows her sporting a flashy yellow diamond ring stacked atop a diamond band.
The rings bear an uncanny resemblance to two styles sold by luxury jeweler Tiffany & Co. New Times took the liberty of sending a photo of the rings to a Tiffany & Co. client advisor. “This appears to be the Tiffany Fancy Yellow Single Row Celeste, and the Victoria Band ring,” the advisor replied when asked whether the company carried the jewelry. The former ranges from $36,000 to $94,000, depending on carat weight (though custom orders can request a larger carat weight for a heftier price tag), while the latter retails at $24,500.
Screenshot of a New Times conversation with a Tiffany & Co. client advisor
According to the International Gem Society, fancy vivid yellow diamonds can be sold for $8,000 to $16,000 per carat. The rare gemstones have an intense yellow hue and are highly valuable due to their color.
Cherfilus-McCormick’s attorneys did not respond to New Times‘ request for comment.
The first Black legislator to represent Florida’s 20th congressional district, which encompasses parts of western and central Broward County, as well as a swath of Palm Beach County, Cherfilus-McCormick was first elected to Congress in 2022 to fill the vacancy created by the death of longtime Rep. Alcee Hastings in 2021.
She won the primary in the heavily Democratic district by five votes and was re-elected without opposition in November 2024. In 2026, she’s set to face 27-year-old Broward County activist Elijah Manley in the Democratic primary for the District 20 seat.
As previously reported by New Times, in March 2021, Florida’s Division of Emergency Management hired Cherfilus-McCormick’s Miramar-based Trinity Health Care Services to register people for COVID-19 vaccines. That spring, Trinity sent the state an invoice of $50,578.50.
But while the state intended to pay Trinity that amount, a decimal error led to a $5,057,850 payment — an overpayment of five million dollars, according to a January 2025 lawsuit.
The suit claimed that the $5 million was just one of several overpayments, totaling more than $5.7 million, and that Trinity ultimately refused to return the money.
Federal Election Commission (FEC) records show that after the state signed the contract with Trinity and the overpayment occurred, Cherfilus-McCormick —Trinity’s CEO at the time — loaned her campaign $6.2 million, which she then used to win a 2022 congressional race against Republican Drew-Montez Clark.
Records show that Cherfilus-McCormick loaned herself millions of dollars for her 2022 congressional campaign across more than 100 payments during the 2021-2022 campaign cycle, ranging from $7 to $2 million.
