Florida AHCA, AG officials diverted $10M Medicaid settlement to Hope Florida charity, routed to Uthmeier's PAC to fight 2024 marijuana measure

On September 27, 2024, the day after Hurricane Helene made landfall in Florida's Big Bend, state officials signed an amended settlement with Centene Corp. that diverted $10 million of a $67 million Medicaid overbilling settlement — money the state was owed as reimbursement for overcharges under the program that insures poor children — to the Hope Florida Foundation rather than state coffers. Agency for Health Care Administration Secretary Jason Weida signed the agreement, as did then-Chief Deputy Attorney General John Guard, after then-Attorney General Ashley Moody authorized him to do so despite Guard's own testimony that he had "reservations" and knew Florida law required the legislature to decide how state money is spent. The settlement was restructured mid-negotiation so that AHCA, not the attorney general's office, would be the party directing the diversion. Centene wired the $10 million to the Hope Florida Foundation on October 4, 2024.

Within 25 days, the Hope Florida Foundation had granted away the entire $10 million in two $5 million awards to nonprofits whose grant applications stated the money would not be used politically. Those nonprofits then transferred a combined $8.5 million to Keep Florida Clean, a political committee chaired by James Uthmeier — then Gov. Ron DeSantis' chief of staff, now Florida's attorney general — which sent $7 million to the Republican Party of Florida and $1.23 million to the Florida Freedom Fund, another committee Uthmeier chaired. Both committees spent the money that fall helping defeat Amendment 3, the 2024 ballot measure to legalize recreational marijuana.

A Florida statewide grand jury presentment, filed under seal in Leon County on January 28, 2026 and leaked to CBS News Miami in August 2026, concluded the diversion was "a sophisticated scheme to fund political activities" and that the $10 million "should have been treated" as taxpayer reimbursement rather than "allocated for partisan political purposes." The grand jury found no legislative notification or public announcement of the settlement, unlike other states' Centene settlements, and found the deal was rushed to close within days of signing — unlike the year Centene was given to repay the remaining $57 million — because "the rush was due to the impending election." It found insufficient evidence to charge anyone criminally, writing that "nobody will take responsibility" for the decision to send the money to Hope Florida.

Uthmeier called the findings a "politically motivated witch hunt" and said "nobody did anything wrong here," while DeSantis said he had reviewed the transfer and found it "legally sound" and "consistent with the state's mission." Guard, whom DeSantis later appointed to Florida's Second District Court of Appeal, and Moody, since elevated to the U.S. Senate, both declined to comment further, citing grand jury secrecy law.

Updates

2025-04-24 — Florida House ended its Hope Florida investigation for the session [4]

The Florida House ended its investigation into the settlement diversion for the 2025 session after several invited witnesses declined to testify at a final hearing and the House did not pursue subpoenas to compel their appearance or force delivery of outstanding records. House Speaker Daniel Perez said the chamber had "not closed the door" on the matter, while investigation chair Rep. Alex Andrade said Uthmeier had transferred the money "illicitly."