Florida grand jury recommends deposit law after $10M 'misappropriation' finding

Grand jury finds ‘insufficient evidence’ for criminal charges in $10M case

The grand jury’s report, dated January 28, 2026, was obtained and published by CBS News Miami on Wednesday after remaining sealed for months. Its findings center on a 2024 transfer of $10 million from a settlement between the state and Centene, a contractor for the government health insurance program for low-income Americans and children, to the Hope Florida Foundation.

In its report, the jurors wrote that “we conclude that these funds were misappropriated as part of a sophisticated scheme to fund political activities.” The jurors added that they found “insufficient evidence to charge anyone criminally.”

According to the report, after the money reached Hope Florida — which it describes as an initiative “championed by the First Lady of Florida, Casey DeSantis” — it was “quickly funneled” into two political action committees. The money was then used to lobby against a Florida ballot measure that would have legalized marijuana and was sent to the Republican Party of Florida, the report says.

The grand jury wrote that “nobody will take responsibility for deciding the $10 million of taxpayer money would go to Hope Florida” and that “this decision was the original misappropriation, and no witness would take responsibility for making the decision or had any memory of who made it.”

“While we can’t prove who is responsible, we can plainly see that taxpayer money was misused for political purposes and we would like to see changes made to prevent this from happening again,” the report concludes.

The jurors also wrote that Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, who served as DeSantis’s chief of staff at the time and is currently running for election to a full four-year term, was in a “position of authority over those involved in settling with Centene.” Testimony identified Uthmeier as “having involvement in directing the money after it went to Hope Florida,” according to the report.

The grand jury noted that no witness admitted or identified who directed the money to Hope Florida and that testimony also revealed that Uthmeier’s political action committee, Keep Florida Clean, was the “prime recipient of the majority” of the $10 million.

The jurors also wrote that the office of Ashley Moody, then Florida’s attorney general and now in her second year in the U.S. Senate, knew of the payment. They noted that her chief deputy signed the settlement agreement “without conducting his due diligence to ensure the proper appropriation of taxpayer funds.”

A spokesperson for Moody, in a statement to the New York Times, said that “the reports confirm what we have said all along” and that “neither the Department of Legal Affairs nor the former attorney general had knowledge of how the settlement money would be spent.” The spokesperson described attempts to “characterize this any other way” as “disingenuous.” Both Uthmeier and Moody have denied any wrongdoing.

When asked by a reporter about the report on Thursday, DeSantis said the only crime that was “apparent was whoever leaked the grand jury report.” He described the settlement as “legally sound” and “appropriate” and said it “advanced the interest of state.”

“There was no diversion of any Medicaid funds,” he said. “That was a private settlement where a company made a private contribution with one of the state agencies.”

DeSantis also said: “The whole reason people tried to make hay of this, was they were trying to use it to smear the first lady of Florida, my wife, and what has come out? Oh, she wasn’t involved in anything. She wasn’t involved in any of this.” The report mentions Casey DeSantis only once, in its reference to Hope Florida.

At an event at the Villages in Florida on Thursday, Uthmeier said he was barred by Florida law from commenting on the report. “I can’t say if it’s true or not,” he said, but added that “if it is indeed true” it shows that “there was no probable cause found that anybody did anything wrong.” He also said, without evidence, that Democrats had been behind the report, and called it a “hoax that has been debunked time and time and time again.” “Nobody did anything wrong here,” he added.

In its recommendations, the grand jury urged the Florida legislature to “enact a law to prevent this situation from occurring,” suggesting “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.”

The findings have already entered Florida’s gubernatorial race. On Thursday, the Democratic nominee for governor, David Jolly, said that if elected he would “reopen an investigation” into the incident and challenged the Republican nominee, Byron Donalds, to do the same.