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, Florida Agency for Health Care Administration Secretary Jason Weida and then-Chief Deputy Attorney General John Guard, authorized by then-Attorney General Ashley Moody, signed an amended $67 million Medicaid overbilling settlement with Centene Corp. that diverted $10 million owed to taxpayers to the Hope Florida Foundation instead of state coffers. Within 25 days the foundation had granted the money to two nonprofits that funneled $8.5 million into Attorney General James Uthmeier's Keep Florida Clean political committee, which sent $7 million to the Republican Party of Florida and $1.23 million to the Florida Freedom Fund — money spent that fall helping defeat a marijuana-legalization ballot measure. A sealed Florida statewide grand jury presentment, leaked to press in August 2026, found the diversion was "a sophisticated scheme to fund political activities" but recommended no criminal charges.