ACHA-Chamber-DeSantis money laundering scheme

The Tampa Bay Times has tracked how the $10 million ACHA settlement given to First Lady Casey DeSantis’ Hope Florida Foundation was spent. The funds ultimately supported her husband’s efforts to defeat the recreational pot amendment last year after being channeled through a nonprofit and a Florida Chamber of Commerce foundation.

Timeline

9/28/24: Centene signed a settlement deal with the Agency for Health Care Administration (ACHA), which included giving Hope Florida $10 million.
10/13/24: Secure Florida’s Future, run by the Florida Chamber of Commerce, submitted a grant asking for $5 million.

New Documents

We have received a copy of the $5 million grant request made by Secure Florida’s Future, a 501(c)(4) nonprofit.

The funds were to be used for “embarking on a long-term, targeted business partner recruitment strategy and public awareness program,” according to Secure Florida’s Future chairman Mark Wilson.

How? “Specifically, awareness will be raised through webinars, podcasts, in-person statewide summits and meetings, newsletters, surveys, e-communications to business community leaders, making up our membership and partners. In addition, we would consider a direct mail and/or digital campaign strategy highlighting the importance of this work and the need for further private sector collaboration.”

Florida Law and IRS Code

Secure Florida chairman Mark Wilson understood the law regarding the $5 million. He wrote:

“Secure Florida Future is not registered, and is not required to be registered, as a political committee under federal state, or local elections laws, and it will not engage in activities that would require it to register as a political committee.”

“Your donation is not designated for and has not been solicited for any specific use or support of any third-party entity,” he wrote. “Secure Florida’s Future does not make independent expenditures or electioneering communications in any federal, state, or local elections.”

The minutes for the Hope Florida Foundation show the board approved the grant on Oct. 14, 2024, a day after Wilson submitted the Secure Florida proposal.

On Oct. 17, Secure Florida’s Future gave $2 million to Keep Florida Clean, a political action committee controlled by James Uthmeier, DeSantis’ then-chief of staff and now Florida Attorney General. Keep Florida Clean campaigned against Amendment 3, which would have legalized recreational marijuana.

Two more transfers to Keep Florida Clean followed: 10/24/24 $1,500,000 and 10/29/24 $250,000

Total distribution by Secure Florida’s Future to Keep Florida Clean after receiving the Hope Florida grant: $3,750,000, leaving it with $1,250,000.

Secure Florida had already given Keep Florida Clean $1,100,000 on 9/12/24.

(Click on the pages below to enlarge.)

DeSantis supporters have argued that it’s not uncommon for settlement agreements to include a “voluntary” donation to a charity. Others have said the $10 millions weren’t tax dollars, so ACHA was required to report the settlement to the Florida Legislature.

Andrade has responded that the settlement concerned Medicaid dollars and should have been returned to the state’s Medicaid fund.

He had AI (X’s Grok 3) answer whether it is illegal to use Medicaid funds to pay for campaign advertising:

2 thoughts on “Documents provide details of ACHA-Chamber-DeSantis money laundering scheme”

If Centene owes the state $67 million, and only give the state $57 million, with another $10 million given to the Hope Florida Foundation, does Centene still own the final $10 million to the state? The Hope Florida Foundation meeting minutes cited above include this sentence, ‘The resolution of a longstanding dispute with the Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) and the state has resulted in a $10 million allocation to the Hope Florida Foundation.” What was the “dispute” between AHCA (part of the state) and “the state” and how would its resolution have authorized what was done? All pretty fishy.

Looks like we’ve got a good priority list accumulating for Florida’s DOGE efforts. After they’re done exposing this particular point of corruption regarding DeSantis’s manipulation of funds towards defeating ballot measures, they can head on over to the Senate and get going on all the past leaders over there who are shocked–just shocked!–to find out the insurance companies were gaming the system, and even those in the industry failed to understand that the State of Florida was participating in open market manipulation that was happening in front of God and everybody. It would at least be nice to see who had their hands directly on cooking those books. Don’t hold your breath.

Nonetheless, at this point, it’s probably a good bet they’ve unleashed a protected Patronis in the background. There are a LOT of people who should be headed to jail, if our rule of law was still intact. My prediction is that, as DeSatan and Casey get politically defanged, nobody will, and everyone will be allowed to stay fat and happy. If there were any justice left, everybody in cahoots with this and other financial schemes while Florida taxpayers were suffering from their negligence and greed ought to be boarded onto a fast plane soon, and headed to some place not nearly as nice as Martha’s Vineyard.

Now, on another note, about his Supreme Court appointments:

“New Florida Marijuana Initiative Faces ‘Big Time Trouble’ In Supreme Court, DeSantis Says, Predicting It’ll Be Blocked From 2026 Ballot”

https://www.marijuanamoment.net/new-florida-marijuana-initiative-faces-big-time-trouble-in-supreme-court-desantis-says-predicting-itll-be-blocked-from-2026-ballot/

Here’s the real question. Why is Puddin Fingers so hell-bent on defeating these measures? I mean, it’s almost as if he’s got his own stash of chocolate sitting in a very fat pie somewhere…

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Documents provide details of ACHA-Chamber-DeSantis money laundering scheme

Timeline

New Documents

Florida Law and IRS Code

2 thoughts on “Documents provide details of ACHA-Chamber-DeSantis money laundering scheme”

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