Prosecutor pursues criminal inquiry into Hope Florida money

Orange-Osceola State Attorney Monique Worrell is pursuing her own criminal investigation into how $10 million in Medicaid settlement money moved through the Hope Florida Foundation, she said in an interview with the Orlando Sentinel reported on October 6. According to the Sentinel's account of a leaked Leon County grand jury report, the grand jury found that the money was improperly routed through the charity to political groups, but it did not seek charges.

"As in any case, if I find criminal wrongdoing that I can prove beyond a reasonable doubt, I will file charges," Worrell said. "And if I cannot, I won't."

What the grand jury described

In September 2024, the state agreed to a settlement under which Centene Corporation would pay $57 million to the state and an additional $10 million to Hope Florida, WDBO reported. The Sentinel reported that the foundation quickly distributed the $10 million to two organizations, Secure Florida's Future and Save Our Society From Drugs, which then gave $4.85 million and $4.75 million to Keep Florida Clean, a political committee run by James Uthmeier, then chief of staff to Gov. Ron DeSantis and now Florida's attorney general. The committee opposed Amendment 3, a ballot measure to legalize marijuana.

The grand jury concluded, the Sentinel reported, that there was not enough evidence for charges because nobody claimed responsibility or could remember who decided to pursue the plan. Worrell said much of the activity took place in Tallahassee, outside her jurisdiction, but that ads paid for by the groups that received the money aired in Orange and Osceola counties.

Uthmeier has defended the transfer. "Every top lawyer, virtually, in the state approved it, there is absolutely nothing wrong with it," he said at a news conference, according to the Sentinel. "It is entirely legal." In a radio interview reported by WDBO, he called Worrell's investigation a "witch hunt." DeSantis has also defended it. "It was legally sound, it was appropriate and it was consistent with the state's mission," he said after the grand jury report came out.

The board decisions in the record

The Sentinel's account of the grand jury report includes details any board should notice. The foundation's chair, Joshua Hay, testified that a lawyer, Jeff Aaron, called to tell him the $10 million was coming, along with a grant request for half of it. The board approved that grant and, on Aaron's advice, gave Hay the power to approve later grants on his own. The second group emailed its application to Aaron and heard the same day that it had been approved.

In our view, three questions follow for any board. Who can approve a grant alone, and up to what amount? Does the board see where large, unexpected gifts end up? And would anyone be able to say, later, who made each decision? Our story on what a board is for covers the oversight duties behind those questions, and our explainer on candidate forums covers the limits on charities in elections.