Florida Governor Ron DeSantis Faces Grand Jury Find Over Misappropriation of Medicaid Fund
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A Florida grand jury has found that the administration of the governor, Ron DeSantis, “misappropriated” $10m in taxpayer money from a Medicaid settlement into the Hope Florida Foundation, a charity with ties to DeSantis’s wife, before the money was reportedly “funneled” into “two political action committees”.
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New York PostWASHINGTON — The DeSantis administration “misappropriated” funds when it sent $10 million from a Medicaid settlement to the Casey DeSantis-aligned Hope Florida Foundation, a grand jury found, according to a leaked report.
Washington ExaminerA Florida grand jury determined that the state government acted inappropriately when it directed millions from a Medicaid settlement to first lady Casey DeSantis’s Hope Florida Foundation, and concluded the funding was further misappropriated to fund political activities.
New York TimesDeSantis Administration Misspent $10 Million, Grand Jury Says A charity tied to Gov. Ron DeSantis’s wife received the money from a state Medicaid settlement and diverted it to political committees supporting a cause favored by the governor.
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“Despite our finding that the money was misappropriated, we find insufficient evidence to charge anyone criminally,” the report concluded. “Nobody will take responsibility for deciding the $10 million of taxpayer money would go to Hope Florida. This decision was the original misappropriation, and no witness would take responsibility for making the decision or had any memory of who made it.”
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New York Post“Despite our finding that the money was misappropriated, we find insufficient evidence to charge anyone criminally,” the report said, according to the outlet. “Nobody will take responsibility for deciding the $10 million of taxpayer money would go to Hope Florida… or had any memory of who made it.”
The Guardian USIn the grand jury report, which remains sealed but was obtained and published by CBS News Miami on Wednesday, the grand jurors wrote that “we conclude that these funds were misappropriated as part of a sophisticated scheme to fund political activities” but said that they found “insufficient evidence to charge anyone criminally”.
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The grand jury said it remains unclear who exactly was responsible for making the decision to misappropriate the funds, making it impossible to press criminal charges. Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier and former Attorney General Ashley Moody were among those the report implicated in diverting the funds from helping residents get off welfare to the state Republican Party and two Political Action Committees invested in defeating Amendment 3, the initiative to legalize marijuana. One of the PACs was chaired by Uthmeier, who was Gov. Ron DeSantis’s general counsel at the time.
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New York PostFrom there, the funds flowed to the Republican Party of Florida and two political action committees with ties to James Uthmeier, who was the governor’s chief of staff at the time but now serves as the state’s attorney general.
The Guardian USIn the report, the grand jurors also wrote that they found that the Florida attorney general, James Uthmeier, who was DeSantis’s chief of staff at the time and is currently running for election for a full four-year term, was in a “position of authority over those involved in settling with Centene” and that testimony identified him as “having involvement in directing the money after it went to Hopе Florida”.
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“In fact, if any confidential grand jury report was leaked to the press, that’s the only crime committed,” DeSantis’s communications director, Alex Lanfranconi, said in a statement.
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The Guardian USWhen asked by a reporter about the report on Thursday, DeSantis said that the only crime that was “apparent was whoever leaked the grand jury report”.
New York Post“In fact, if any confidential grand jury report was leaked to the press, that’s the only crime committed.”
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Casey DeSantis’s Hope Florida is an organization that helps residents get off welfare by connecting them with nonprofit groups and faith-based services. It operates as an official function of the governor’s office, and its services are implemented through state agencies, including Florida’s Departments of Education and Children and Families.
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New York PostHope Florida is Casey’s social welfare initiative that works to make poor people self-sufficient and independent over the long term. The Hope Florida Foundation is a charitable group tied to that initiative. The scandal blew up around the time that Casey was rumored to be considering a run for governor.
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The grand jurors wrote that no witness admitted or identified who directed the money to go to Hope Florida and noted that testimony also revealed that Uthmeier’s political action committee, Keep Florida Clean, was the “prime recipient of the majority” of the $10m.
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New York Post“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,” the report said, per CBS News.
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Then-Attorney General Ashley Moody (R), who is now a senator, “authorized” her deputy at the time to sign the settlement agreement. The grand jury zinged the deputy for signing it “without conducting his due diligence to ensure the proper appropriation of taxpayer funds.”
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The Guardian USThe jurors also noted that the office of Ashley Moody, then Florida’s attorney general who is currently serving her second year in the Senate and is up for re-election, knew of the payment, and that her chief deputy signed the agreement “without conducting his due diligence to ensure the proper appropriation of taxpayer funds”.
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“The Florida Legislature should enact a law to prevent this situation from occurring,” the grand jury report suggested. “For example, a law that says any monies received by the state from any source must be deposited into the General Fund, and there should be real consequences for anyone violating this law.”
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The Guardian USIn the report, the jury recommended that the Florida legislature “enact a law to prevent this situation from occurring”. They suggest enacting “a law that says any monies received by the state from any source must be deposited into General Revenue, and there should be real consequences for anyone violating this law”.
4 details only one outlet reported
Independent claims that didn't surface elsewhere in our corpus. Treat as supplementary — not corroborated across outlets.
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01 New York Post Hope Florida somehow got $10 million of the $67 million available to Florida in a settlement from the health care firm Centene Corporation and a Sunshine State agency for overbilling taxpayers for prescription drugs.
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02 Washington Examiner There is insufficient evidence to press criminal charges over the first lady’s charity scandal, according to a copy of the January 2026 grand jury report from Leon County leaked to the press on Wednesday.
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03 Fox News "According to the Paulino indictment, Mr. Paulino devised a scheme to obtain more than $700,000 in federal pandemic relief funds. It is alleged that Paulino used some of the money for his own personal use, including real estate expenses, loan payments and transfers to his campaign account," Foley said.
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04 The Guardian US The report goes on to say that after the money was transferred to Hope Florida, it was “quickly funneled” from there into two political action committees, and that the money was then reportedly used to lobby against a ballot measure that would have legalized marijuana in Florida, and was sent to the Republican party of Florida.
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Sources (5)
- nyt
- nypost
- foxnews
- guardian
- washexaminer