DeSantis' Hope Florida scandal gets worse

Why the concern over whose fingerprints were on the deal?

The DeSantis administration’s Hope Florida scandal took a serious turn for the worse this week, and the only question is whether lawmakers, regulators and law enforcement will hold those involved accountable.

First, some background:

A Times/Herald investigation revealed this year that the DeSantis administration directed a Medicaid contractor that overbilled the state to divert $10 million from a larger settlement away from state coffers. Instead, the money went to the fundraising arm of Hope Florida, a pet project championed by Gov. Ron DeSantis’ wife, Casey, that seeks to get Floridians off public assistance.

Weeks later, the charity gave $10 million to two nonprofits, who in turn sent nearly all of it to a political committee overseen by DeSantis’ then-chief of staff. That committee was created to oppose last year’s statewide referendum to legalize recreational marijuana, which DeSantis opposed.

Those revelations ignited a firestorm during this year’s legislative session, after reports that the nonprofit’s foundation had failed to file tax returns or perform audits required under state law, met in secret and maintained no budget or bylaws. A top Republican lawmaker accused the administration of illegally laundering federal Medicaid funds, and former federal prosecutors said the transactions may have been illegal. Prosecutors in Tallahassee have launched a criminal investigation.

This week, the Times reported that as officials scrambled last year to draft the settlement agreement, lawyers for the contractor Centene and the Florida Attorney General’s Office tried to distance their clients from the deal. Over three weeks in September, newly released records show, a top deputy in the attorney general’s office repeatedly removed references to his agency in drafts of the settlement passed among negotiators.

https://www.tampabay.com/viewpoints/2025/08/14/desantis-hope-florida-scandal-gets-worse-column/