DeSantis awarded contract to lawyers who secured dirty Hope Florida money
TAMPA, FL — As reported by Jason Garcia, a newly-disclosed state contract shows the DeSantis administration rehired a group of politically connected attorneys in December 2024, months after cutting them out of a $67 million settlement with health insurer Centene. According to the Seeking Rents article, the settlement directed $10 million to the Hope Florida Foundation. The foundation passed the money to two nonprofits, which used it to make political contributions. A grand jury later described the movement of the money as “a sophisticated scheme to fund political activities.”
The attorneys had first approached Florida officials in 2021 about claims that Centene overbilled Medicaid programs for prescription drugs. Around the time those discussions began, three members of the legal team each gave $1,000 to a DeSantis fundraising committee. Businesses linked to two of the attorneys later gave a combined $100,000 to the Republican Party of Florida, and one attorney gave $10,000 to a committee controlled by then-Attorney General Ashley Moody. The state hired the team in December 2021 under a contingency fee agreement, meaning the lawyers would receive a share of any recovery. The article documents the contributions and the contract negotiations, but does not establish that the contributions caused the state to hire the attorneys.
Florida terminated the lawyers’ contract in March 2023 without giving a reason in its written notice. DeSantis’ administration ultimately reached its own agreement with Centene in September 2024 for $67,048,611, the exact sum the attorneys had brought to the state more than three years earlier. The consequential change was how the money would be paid: Centene was required to send $10 million to the Hope Florida Foundation instead of paying the full amount into the state treasury.
The foundation promptly distributed that $10 million to two nonprofits. According to the grand jury findings described in the article, most of the money eventually reached the Republican Party of Florida and two political committees controlled by DeSantis’ then-chief of staff, James Uthmeier. Those funds supported advertising against 2024 ballot measures on marijuana and abortion. The grand jury concluded that the administration had “misappropriated” money belonging to Florida taxpayers. It issued no individual criminal indictments, citing conflicting testimony and gaps in the evidence.
Despite having fired the attorneys, the DeSantis administration gave essentially the same team a new contract on Dec. 18, 2024. The agreement was executed under Uthmeier and approved by the Attorney General’s Office, then led by Moody. It covers legal work involving pharmacy benefit management practices and could pay the attorneys as much as $50 million if the state recovers sufficient funds. The article says it remains unclear why the administration rehired them. It also estimates that removing the lawyers from the Centene matter had cost them about $7 million in potential fees.
The new contract was not posted to Florida’s public contract database until Sept. 11, nearly two years after it was signed and three days after Seeking Rents requested it. The Department of Management Services, which awarded the contract, did not answer the publication’s questions. The delayed disclosure kept a potentially lucrative agreement involving the same attorneys out of the database where state agencies are supposed to report their contracts.
DeSantis’ staff negotiated the Hope Florida settlement that routed $10 million through the foundation, while Republican political groups ultimately received most of that money. Uthmeier and Moody were found by the grand jury to have played key roles. DeSantis subsequently appointed Moody to the U.S. Senate and Uthmeier to succeed her as attorney general. It is not yet known if DeSantis personally negotiated the settlement or if rehiring was a reward for the attorneys. Those questions, along with the reason for the contract’s delayed disclosure, remain unanswered.