As reported earlier, State Representative Alex Andrade has announced, his legislative investigation has concluded after key witnesses declined to testify before his subcommittee.
The investigation, which has been examining allegations of misappropriated Medicaid settlement funds, took an unexpected turn when the foundation’s attorney, Jeff Aaron, and James Uthmeier, both central figures in the probe, and the heads of the two nonprofits, who facilitated the movement of millions to the a political committee run by Uthmeier, refused to appear for scheduled testimony.
Åndrade said:
“I wouldn’t say it’s bad news. “I think it’s actually a good indication that people are suddenly taking this very seriously.”
According to the Pensacola lawmaker, the investigation has already established that Uthmeier and Aaron “conspired to move money from a Medicaid settlement through the Hope Florida Foundation to (Securing Florida’s Future and Save Our Society from Drugs), which immediately turned around and gave it to James Uthmeier’s PAC.”
Legislative Role vs. Criminal Investigation
The representative explained that while his subcommittee’s role was to gather facts for potential policy decisions rather than pursue criminal charges, he believes the investigation has uncovered sufficient evidence to move forward with policy recommendations.
- “In the real world, outside of this Tallahassee bubble, if someone defrauds this state or charity out of 10 million, they go to prison,” Andrade stated, highlighting the seriousness of the allegations.
He also revealed he had spoken with someone from the U.S. Attorney’s office about the matter, though he stopped short of confirming that an official federal investigation had been opened.
Next Steps
With the legislative session approaching its deadline, Andrade plans to pivot to budget matters and prepare policy solutions to address the circumstances that allowed this alleged misappropriation to occur. He indicated this would be among his top priorities when the next legislative session begins.
“There’s no excuse for this type of misappropriation of Medicaid money,” Andrade concluded. “There’s no justification for what they did under the circumstances, and we’ll have to go address it starting next session.”
Photo by Ian Powell on Unsplash