IRS takes up whistleblower claim of Hope Florida money that flowed to Uthmeier's political committee
Published October 2, 2026 at 6:41 PM EDT
The Internal Revenue Service is reviewing a whistleblower claim about $10 million in Medicaid settlement money that moved through the Hope Florida Foundation and, within weeks, into a political committee chaired by James Uthmeier, now Florida's attorney general, according to new records obtained by the Florida Trident.
The Internal Revenue Service is reviewing a whistleblower claim about $10 million in Medicaid settlement money that moved through the Hope Florida Foundation and, within weeks, into a political committee chaired by James Uthmeier, now Florida's attorney general, according to new records obtained by the Florida Trident.
State Rep. Alex Andrade, the Pensacola Republican who led House hearings last year into the diversion of the settlement money to the foundation, filed the claim with the IRS earlier this year. The foundation is a state-created charity that supports Hope Florida, the signature initiative of First Lady Casey DeSantis touted to benefit sick and needy children.
The claim puts a federal agency on a money trail that a Leon County grand jury traced in January and described as "obvious": from a Medicaid settlement with Centene Corp., to the foundation, to two nonprofits, and within weeks to Keep Florida Clean, the committee Uthmeier chaired to fight Amendment 3, the 2024 ballot measure to legalize recreational marijuana.
The grand jury found that both nonprofits "mischaracterized the use of the funds" and that the money was "misappropriated as part of a sophisticated scheme to fund political activities," but concluded there was "insufficient evidence to charge anyone criminally."
Records reviewed by the Trident, including tax returns filed after the grand jury began hearing witnesses, campaign finance reports, banking records, emails, text messages and sworn testimony, show how the trail was laid and what those involved told the foundation, the grand jury and the IRS.
Follow the paper trail: Read the full timeline of the Hope Florida money, with source documents →
Among the findings:
- The settlement required Centene to pay the foundation within seven days of signing while the state waited 45 days for the first half of its own money; the clause was added two days after a briefing held in the governor's office. The grand jury said it believed "the rush was due to the impending election."
- The first grant was arranged before the foundation's chairman knew the money was coming. He learned of both in one phone call from a politically-connected lawyer later hired by the foundation.
- The minutes of the Oct. 14, 2024 foundation board meeting that approved the first grant were not finalized until more than five months later. One of three directors present later wrote that circulated documents "do not accurately reflect my recollection of that meeting."
- Uthmeier, then Gov. Ron DeSantis' chief of staff, told the second nonprofit to apply for a grant from the foundation a week after the settlement money arrived and before the foundation's board met. The grand jury called it his "direct instruction to apply."
- Both nonprofits assured the foundation the money had not been solicited or designated for any third party, then sent most of it to Uthmeier's PAC, Keep Florida Clean, within two weeks. One wrote its first check the day after its grant funds arrived.
- The accounting firm that audited the foundation warned in April 2026 that the Centene money, treated as an "excess contribution," would put the foundation's public support at 17.66 percent, "failing the support test" and risking its tax-exempt status.
In a letter dated May 30, 2026, the IRS Whistleblower Office in Ogden, Utah, acknowledged receipt of Andrade's submission, which he filed under the procedure the IRS uses for reporting suspected tax violations, and assigned it a claim number.
The letter refers to the subject of the claim only as "SECU." The IRS typically identifies the entity named in a claim by the first four letters of its name. The only entity that matches that identifier is Secure Florida's Future.
The IRS does not publicly confirm examinations of specific taxpayers. Under a 2019 law, its Whistleblower Office notifies people who submit information when a case they provided information on has been referred for audit or examination. The May 30 letter is the office's initial acknowledgment, not that notice.
The IRS did not respond to a request for comment. Nothing in the records reviewed by the Trident indicates the IRS has made any finding to date, and no one has been charged over the grants.
Follow the money
The money came from Centene Corp.'s $67 million settlement with the state, signed Sept. 27, 2024, over claims the Medicaid contractor overbilled for prescription drugs. The agreement steered $10 million to the Hope Florida Foundation and put it first in line to receive settlement funds: Centene had seven days to wire the foundation's money, but 45 days to pay the state the first half of the $57 million it owed to the state, with the balance to be paid within the year.
Jason Weida, the AHCA secretary who negotiated the agreement and is now DeSantis' chief of staff, told the grand jury he did not know why the foundation's payment was on a shorter timeline than the state's. The deadline was absent from the Sept. 11 draft and present in the one AHCA sent the attorney general's office the following day. Centene wired the $10 million to Hope Florida on Oct. 4, a month before the election.
Within 18 days, the foundation had paid out all of the Centene funds in two $5 million grants to the two nonprofits, Secure Florida's Future, a nonprofit chaired by Florida Chamber of Commerce President Mark Wilson, and Save Our Society From Drugs, a St. Petersburg nonprofit that opposes drug legalization.
The money didn't stay with the nonprofits for long. Between Oct. 17 and Oct. 29, the two nonprofits wrote six checks totaling $8.5 million to Keep Florida Clean. From there, the grand jury found, "a large portion of the money ended up in the coffers of the Republican Party of Florida."
The path the money took raises questions under a Florida campaign finance law that makes it a crime to knowingly and willfully make or accept a contribution "through or in the name of another, directly or indirectly," or to take part in one. One such contribution is a misdemeanor. Two or more make it a third-degree felony. The grand jury's report, which cited the state's theft and settlement statutes, did not address the campaign finance law.
The law has two purposes, said Michael Morley, a Florida State University law professor and faculty director of its Election Law Center. "One purpose is to prevent conduits or intermediaries from making contributions that would disguise the true source of the money. The other is to ensure donation limits are not exceeded."
Whether campaign finance laws were violated, Morley said, would depend on whether the donation was intended for another purpose. Pre-arrangement and coordination are "just one piece of circumstantial evidence that would be considered."
Morgan Bentley, an election law attorney and former chair of the Florida Commission on Ethics, said that whether the transfers were a planned exchange of funds is "the most important data point to determine" and that timing, amounts and communications around the payments, among other facts, are what investigators look to. Money is fungible, he said, so a direct tie between money in and money out is always hard to make.
Asked about the facts the Trident obtained from public records, including the grand jury's findings, Bentley said: "If these facts are true, it certainly opens the door to the allegation that this was a pretextual exchange of funds."
Secure Florida's Future
Joshua Hay, the foundation's chairman, told the grand jury that in a single phone call the foundation's lawyer, Jeff Aaron, informed him that $10 million was coming and that a $5 million grant request from Secure Florida's Future would follow.
The request arrived on a Sunday. At 12:50 p.m. on Oct. 13, 2024, Frank Walker, the chamber's executive vice president for government and political relations, emailed Hay a letter signed by Wilson as the nonprofit's chairman.
The letter assured the foundation that Secure Florida's Future does not make independent expenditures or give to candidates or political parties, and that the money was "not designated for, and has not been solicited for, any specific use or support of any third-party entity."
It also promised secrecy: the group "will not engage in any activities that would require it or any other entity to disclose your donation publicly."
At a 20-minute board meeting on the afternoon of Oct. 14, Hay presented Secure Florida's Future's proposal. His minutes describe it as "developed in alignment with the Department and Executive Administration." The board approved the grant and, on Aaron's advice, gave Hay authority to approve later requests on his own.
Metadata shows a PDF of the minutes was created by Hay on March 31, 2025—more than five months after the meeting, and days before the first news reports about the controversy.
A foundation board director had her own doubts. On April 24, 2025, with the House hearings underway, Tina Vidal-Duart, one of the three Hope Florida directors present, emailed Hay, Aaron and two other board members asking to revisit "the October 2024 discussion since some of the documents being circulated do not accurately reflect my recollection of that meeting."
Wilson told the grand jury he applied "pursuant to the suggestion of Frank Walker," a chamber employee who also sits on the Secure Florida's Future board. He did not recall whether Walker suggested the amount and did not remember who gave him the idea of applying. He denied that $5 million was an unusually large request.
Less than a week after the application, the foundation wired the $5 million to the nonprofit. Secure Florida's Future gave Keep Florida Clean $2 million on Oct. 17, $1.5 million on Oct. 24 and $250,000 on Oct. 29, campaign finance records show: $3.75 million in 12 days.
Neither Wilson nor Walker responded to multiple requests for comment.
Save Our Society From Drugs
On Oct. 11, 2024, a week after the Centene money arrived and three days before the foundation's board met, Uthmeier texted and then called Amy Ronshausen, the group's executive director. He "advised her to apply for a grant from Hope Florida" and "put her in contact with Jeff Aaron as the representative of Hope Florida who could assist her with the process," according to the grand jury's summary of her testimony.
The grand jury described the call as Uthmeier's "direct instruction to apply" for a grant and said testimony showed his "involvement in directing the money after it went to Hope Florida."
A week later, on Oct. 18, Ronshausen texted Aaron asking "who to address it to and the USD amount." Aaron sent her an image of Wilson's letter: "I'd do it like that for the same amount and let's see what the board agrees to." Her request, modeled on Wilson's, said the funds had not been "designated or solicited for specific support of any third-party entity." It went to Aaron, not Hay. Hay approved the $5 million about an hour later, without a board vote.
Save Our Society From Drugs received the money on Oct. 22. The next day, Keep Florida Clean recorded a $1.6 million check from the nonprofit, campaign finance records show. The group sent $2.65 million the day after that and $500,000 four days later: $4.75 million in a week, matching the bank records the grand jury's forensic accountant testified he obtained.
Unlike Secure Florida's Future, Save Our Society From Drugs reported its transfers to Keep Florida Clean under political campaign and lobbying activities, CBS News Miami reported.
Ronshausen did not reply to requests for comment.
Keep Florida Clean
Keep Florida Clean's tax return, signed by Uthmeier as chairman, describes the organization's mission in one line: "Advocate against and oppose the passage of Constitutional Amendment 3." It reports $26,090,394 in contributions in 2024 and $12.6 million in political campaign activity, made up of $11.5 million to the Republican Party of Florida, $2 million of which the party sent back on Oct. 31, and $1.1 million to the Florida Freedom Fund, another political action committee Uthmeier chaired.
Keep Florida Clean moved the money almost as quickly as it came in. On Oct. 25, the day after $4.15 million arrived from the two nonprofits, it sent the Republican Party of Florida $5 million.
The committee's campaign finance reports, which Florida law treats as filed under oath by its chair and treasurer, list Secure Florida's Future and Save Our Society From Drugs as the donors of the six checks. Hope Florida appears nowhere in the reports. Under Florida law, a contribution to a political committee is money given "for the purpose of influencing the results of an election," which includes ballot measures.
What Secure Florida's Future told the IRS
Wilson signed Secure Florida's Future's 2024 tax return as chair on Nov. 14, 2025, about a month after the grand jury began hearing witnesses. It was filed Nov. 17.
The return shows how the Hope Florida money changed the organization. It reported $7,637,501 in contributions in 2024, up from $200,000 the year before, so the foundation's grant accounted for about two of every three dollars the nonprofit took in. It paid out $7.35 million in grants. It reported no employees and no volunteers.
The return also contradicts how Wilson has described the group. The grand jury wrote that Wilson "testified that Secure Florida's Future is a non-profit, non-political organization." In a letter to the chamber's board in April 2025, Wilson called it a "non-profit, non-political, social assistance organization" and wrote that "all rules and laws governing our grant request and our 501c(4) status were followed."
On the tax return Wilson signed, the organization answered "Yes" when asked whether it engaged in political campaign activities on behalf of or in opposition to candidates. It reported $2.5 million in political campaign spending, described as "recruiting, selecting and supporting the election of pro-Florida, pro-business candidates." The return lists grants totaling the same $2.5 million to nine political committees affiliated with the chamber, each with the purpose "political."
The $4.85 million to Uthmeier's PAC is reported differently. The return identifies the committee as a 501(c)(4) and the purpose as "general support." The figure includes $1.1 million the group gave the committee on Sept. 12, 2024, a month before the grant.
In April 2026, Caitlyn Tortorici of Crosby Ottenhoff, the firm that keeps Hope Florida's books, relayed its tax preparer's warning that the foundation's public support percentage "would be 17.66%, which is failing the support test and would risk losing the organization's exemption status," because $9,874,251 of the Centene money counted as an "excess contribution."
What Uthmeier knew
James Uthmeier swears in on Feb. 17, 2025, as the Attorney General of Florida. Credit: The Florida Channel Uthmeier was on both ends of the transactions. He chaired the committee that accepted the money, and he told Save Our Society From Drugs to apply for it. The ban on contributions made through or in the name of another applies to those who accept such contributions as well as those who make them.
His involvement with Centene began years earlier. Emails show Uthmeier handled the state's claim against the company from 2021, first as the governor's general counsel, and in June 2022 rejected a proposed release, writing that the state "may prefer to go the route of litigation."
Records show the Agency for Health Care Administration scheduled a briefing at the governor's office for Sept. 10, 2024, with the Centene settlement listed as the first item on the agenda. The draft agreement it prepared for the briefing contained no mention of a donation to Hope Florida.
The day after the briefing, a revised draft of the settlement included a $5 million donation to Hope Florida; less than 48 hours later, a second draft doubled the donation to $10 million.
On Sept. 12, the day the draft settlement agreement that included the Hope Florida provision first went to the attorney general's office, Secure Florida's Future gave Uthmeier's PAC, Keep Florida Clean, $1.1 million.
Cody Farrill, a deputy chief of staff to DeSantis, testified that he learned at a senior staff meeting that the settlement was in the works and that signatures needed to be procured. The grand jury found Uthmeier "was in a position of authority over those involved in settling with Centene," but said no witness identified who directed the money to Hope Florida.
The Trident posed written questions to Uthmeier about whether he attended the Sept. 10 briefing and whether a donation to Hope Florida was discussed. Uthmeier did not respond.
Violations of Chapter 106, the state's campaign finance law, must be charged within two years of the date of the violation, which for the October 2024 contributions means by Oct. 17 to Oct. 29, 2026.
Whatever the IRS decides, Andrade may be waiting to learn the details. The letter told him, "it could take several years until final resolution of all tax matters."
The Florida Trident is a local investigative news outlet focusing on government accountability and transparency across Florida.
Copyright 2026 WLRN
https://www.wusf.org/politics-issues/2026-10-02/irs-takes-up-whistleblower-claim-of-hope-florida-money-that-flowed-to-uthmeiers-political-committee
