Hope Florida Scandal: The stench of corruption could choke a horse

The cloud hanging over the DeSantis administration's blatant diversion of taxpayer money meant to provide healthcare for impoverished children into Casey DeSantis' foundation was said to be the main reason the First Lady pivoted away from a gubernatorial run. Now that the public has gained more insight into how that misuse of funds took place, the shameful scandal should sink two more campaigns.

On Wednesday, we learned that a grand jury found that the administration "misappropriated" $10 million from a settlement with a healthcare provider that had overbilled Florida's Healthy Kids program by giving it to the Hope Florida Foundation. The report deemed the transfer "part of a sophisticated scheme to fund political activities," according to a copy of the sealed grand jury report obtained by CBS News Miami.

The grand jury found that the funding was ultimately funneled through multiple organizations before ending up in the accounts of two PACs and the Republican Party of Florida, where they were used to defeat Amendment 3 last cycle, a citizen initiative to legalize recreational marijuana.

The report noted that while the grand jury found that the money was clearly misappropriated, there was insufficient evidence to file criminal charges because, "Nobody will take responsibility for deciding the $10 million of taxpayer money would go to Hope Florida" and that apparently no one involved "had any memory" of who made that decision. The report explained that while there was no way to prove who was responsible, "We can plainly see that taxpayer money was misused for political purposes…"

Enter James Uthmeier, DeSantis' then Chief of Staff, who was later appointed by the governor to serve as Attorney General after Ashley Moody was appointed to replace Sec. of State Marco Rubio in the U.S. Senate. Both Uthmeier and Moody won Republican primaries this month and will be on the ballot for their respective offices in November.

"We find that James Uthmeier, as the Governor's Chief of Staff at the time of settlement, was in a position of authority over those involved in settling …," the grand jury wrote. "Testimony identified him as having involvement in directing the money after it went to Hope Florida. Testimony also revealed that Mr. Uthmeier's Keep Florida Clean, a political action committee, was the prime recipient of the majority of the $10 million taxpayer funds."

As AG, Moody, the grand jury concluded, was aware of the scheme and "authorized" John Guard, her former chief deputy, to sign the settlement agreement. The grand jury wrote that Guard signed off "without conducting his due diligence to ensure the proper appropriation of taxpayer funds." In keeping with the failing upward theme of this fiasco, DeSantis appointed Guard to the state appeals court in January.

Casey DeSantis founded Hope Florida in 2021 as a charity intended to connect underprivileged Floridians with government resources, nonprofits, the private sector, and religious organizations. Its associated foundation was supposed to aid Hope Florida, whose "navigators" are state employees who work with people to find solutions through such resources in order to reduce the overall need for government assistance.

The settlement was with Centene Corporation, Florida's largest Medicaid contractor. Centene overbilled Florida by $67 million in 2021, and the company later agreed to return the amount to the federal and state governments involved in the billing. $10 million of that was sent to the Hope Florida Foundation, only for the foundation to swiftly disburse those funds to two dark-money PACs opposing Amendment 3.

In early 2025, the Florida House opened an investigation into allegations of money laundering and wire fraud involving the foundation. The House soon halted its investigation after Hope Florida refused to continue cooperating. In May 2025, State Attorney Jack Campbell of the Second Judicial Circuit Court opened a criminal investigation into the allegations of political corruption.

In October 2025, state prosecutors issued multiple subpoenas for witnesses to testify before a grand jury. The sealed grand jury report was filed with the Leon County Clerk's Office on Jan. 28 of this year. Uthmeier has been accused of actively blocking its release in closed court proceedings over the past seven months, as both he and Moody campaign for office.

The grand jury report further suggests that administration officials took advantage of the chaos surrounding Hurricanes Helene and Milton to help obscure their scheme. In fact, the former chair of the foundation, Joshua Hay, testified to the grand jury that he agreed to send the $10 million to the PACs without asking questions because "he assumed the money was needed to assist hurricane victims."

The grand jury also noted that the repayment schedule raised red flags: Centene was required to wire the $10 million to the Hope Florida Foundation within seven days, while it was allowed more than a year to repay the remaining $57 million to Florida taxpayers, where it could be used to help underprivileged children. Priorities, folks.

"The Centene settlement itself seems rushed as it materialized rapidly after years of inactivity," the grand jury wrote. "Then, once reached, it took a mere 7 days to fund. We believe the rush was due to the impending election, which was just 45 days away."

Although 56% of Floridians voted for Amendment 3, it did not reach the required 60% threshold to pass. DeSantis spent millions of additional taxpayer dollars on negative advertisements in the days leading up to the election, with both Ron and Casey making near-daily public appearances to oppose its passage.

Let that all sink in. Centene, an S&P 500 company with just under $200 billion in revenue last year, ripped off a program meant to provide prescriptions to Florida's most vulnerable children. In the run-up to an election, the company hastily agreed to return the money it had nicked, $10 million of it pronto, while they were allowed to earn money on the rest for the following year. That $10 million was rapidly dispersed, not to help poor kids get healthcare as intended, but to pay for consultants and media buys aimed at defeating a citizen-initiated referendum DeSantis was hell-bent against.

The guy who seems to have his fingerprints all over it is the same culture warrior hack who is currently asking Florida voters to elect him to the Attorney General post he was handed after seeming to play ball while Chief of Staff. It should be noted that Uthmeier is the same bozo who dreamt up Alligator Alcatraz, the disastrously expensive and criminally inhumane immigration detention center in the Florida Everglades. His AG predecessor, Moody, who needed to sign off on this fiasco, also failed upward, being given a U.S. Senate seat shortly after, which she is also asking voters to elect her to. The stench of corruption could choke a horse.

You-scratch-my-back, I'll-scratch-yours, and even if what we do isn't strictly legal, we will all come out having advanced our careers while escaping accountability. 

Moody, Uthmeier, and the DeSantises all claim to hold children in such high regard any time they are mining culture war issues involving Pride celebrations, drag shows, trans issues, DEI, or vaccine quackery. But when the rubber meets the road, they seem perfectly willing to steal money meant for poor kids' healthcare to advance their own political agendas. After all, it isn’t going to affect their children or those of their country club pals or deep-pocketed donors. We are talking about impoverished children, after all, for whom modern Republicans’ empathy seems to end once they depart the womb.

Americans' trust in their institutions is at an all-time low, and this sort of naked chicanery is but more evidence that the elites barely bother to cover their tracks any longer. But as long as the special interest money keeps pouring in and uninformed voters keep showing up to pull the lever based on the glossy mailers and slick television ads, expect more of the same. 

Dennis "Mitch" Maley is an editor and columnist for The Bradenton Times and the host of our weekly podcast. With over two decades of experience as a journalist, he has covered Manatee County government since 2010. He is a graduate of Shippensburg University and later served as a Captain in the U.S. Army. Click here for his bio. Mitch's new novel, Fish Kill, is currently available here, along with his previous books. He can be reached at editor@thebradentontimes.com.