A non-profit organization tied to the Florida Chamber of Commerce now at the center of the governor’s Hope Florida controversy involving the diversion of millions of dollars in state Medicaid settlement funds for political purposes, has a history of funneling money to political operatives attempting to sway election outcomes in Florida.
In 2020, Secure Florida’s Future—a 501(c)(4) non-profit chaired by Florida Chamber president and CEO Mark Wilson—paid $470,00 to The Matrix LLC, an Alabama-based political consulting firm linked to Florida Power & Light Company.
In what became known as the ghost candidate scandal, operatives tied to Matrix played a key role in a scheme that unseated a South Florida state senator by just 32 votes. The effort targeted a vocal critic of the utility and resulted in criminal charges against several individuals, including a former state senator. The term “dark money” refers to political spending intended to influence elections or policy outcomes without disclosing the funding source.
The Chamber and Secure Florida’s Future emerged from the scandal unscathed.
Now, five years later, Secure Florida’s Future, which claims as its mission economic education of the citizenry, is one of two non-profits at the center of hearings recently concluded by the Republican-led Florida House of Representatives into the diversion of $10 million from a $67 million Medicaid settlement with the state. The settlement was a result of overbillings for prescription drugs by the Centene corporation, which holds Florida’s lucrative Medicaid managed care contract.
“It does appear, from everything indicated by Mr. Wilson, that they were complicit in full knowledge of what they were doing in the misuse of these Medicaid funds,” said Representative Alex Andrade, a Republican from Pensacola who led the House Health Care Budget Subcommittee probe into the diversion of the Medicaid funds, at the subcommittee’s final meeting last month.
The transfer of Medicaid settlement money with the help of Secure Florida’s Future has raised questions not only about the legality of such an action, but focused attention once again on the use of so-called “dark money” groups to obscure the identity of those involved in the financial transactions.
“It points to a larger problem, that there’s a need for reform at the federal level,” notes Ben Wilcox, executive director of Integrity Florida, a non-profit, non-partisan research group based in Tallahassee. “It’s not a good look for the Florida Chamber to be tied to another dark money scheme.”
In 2024, the state directed $10 million of the $67 million Medicaid settlement to be sent to the Hope Florida Foundation, the fund-raising arm for Hope Florida, First Lady Casey DeSantis’ flagship initiative to help Floridians get off government assistance.
The Foundation, in turn, immediately after receiving an unsolicited grant request for $5 million from Secure Florida’s Future in October, and, shortly after, an identically worded request from Save Our Society from Drugs, a Florida-based anti-drug organization, wired the money to the two non-profits, according to reports.
According to Andrade’s committee, the non-profits then sent the bulk of the money to Keep Florida Clean, a political action committee (PAC) run by the governor’s then-chief of staff, James Uthmeier. Uthmeier, who has since been appointed Attorney General by Gov. Ron DeSantis, was part of the governor’s intense efforts to defeat Amendment 3, which would have legalized recreational marijuana.
Records on file with Florida’s Department of State show Secure Florida’s Future sent almost $4 million to Keep Florida Clean in October, 2024, shortly after receiving the $5 million “grant” from the Hope Florida Foundation. A $1.1 million donation was also made by Secure Florida’s Future to Keep Florida Clean in September.
In declining at the last minute an invitation to appear before Andrade’s committee last month, Wilson defended the money transfers, writing in an email to Andrade received just before the committee meeting began, that Secure Florida’s Future “is a social welfare non-profit organization which the law explicitly allows to promote the community’s general welfare,” later adding that any insights divulged during an appearance “would infringe bedrock associational rights, undermining the organization and chilling its constitutionally protected rights.”
But it was not the first time the non-profit has had to defend its involvement in political operations involving dark money transfers, so called because funding sources remain hidden and are not required by the IRS to be disclosed.
Secure Florida’s Future was founded in 2017 as a 501(c)(4) “exclusively for the promotion of social welfare,” according to records on file with the state Division of Corporations. Its mission, according to IRS tax filings over the years, “is to educate the citizens of Florida about economic and job growth to secure Florida’s future.”
Following the 2020 election cycle, Florida was rocked by an elections scandal resulting from the discovery of coordinated efforts between powerful industries, dark money non-profit organizations, and the use of “ghost candidates” to oust a sitting state Senator and defeat two other Senate candidates.
In extensive reporting by the Orlando Sentinel and other news organizations, investigations uncovered a labyrinth of dark money organizations tied to the industries and consultants attempting to keep their involvement obscured.
The covert operation, touching campaigns in Central and South Florida and run largely by Alabama-based Matrix LLC, together with one of its clients, Florida Power & Light, ultimately led to criminal charges against five individuals, one of them a former state senator.
Throughout 2020 and 2021, Matrix operatives worked closely with Florida Power & Light, according to reports, not only meddling in the elections of those seen as unfriendly by Florida Power & Light, but targeting other perceived foes as well, including surveilling a journalist with The Florida-Times Union.
Federal form 990 tax returns filed by the Chamber’s Secure Florida’s Future for the year 2020 showed a $470,000 payment for “general support” to Matrix LLC. A $2 million “grant” for “general support” was sent the following year to a Washington, D.C. non-profit chaired by a schoolteacher relative of a former Matrix operative.
A chamber executive defended the payment at the time as “non-political” and intended “to educate Floridians on issues that impact Florida’s economic and job growth,” according to the Orlando Sentinel.
Yet another 2020 donation from Secure Florida’s Future illustrates the circuitous route millions in dark money often follows as it’s commingled with other dark money sources as it makes its way to intended targets. IRS forms show a “general support” donation of $1,630,000 from Secure Florida’s Future to Tallahassee-based Foundation for a Safe Environment, a 501(c)(4) that described its mission as “environmental issue advocacy.”
The Foundation for a Safe Environment, in turn, was the source of a $630,000 donation to Let’s Preserve the American Dream, a 501(c)(4) established to “educate citizens on the societal benefits of sound economic, regulatory and legal policies,” but which was helping finance the ghost candidate operation, according to news reports.
These outgoing donations are listed in federal tax forms typically filed a year after the money has been distributed, further frustrating any tracking by voters trying to follow the money. There are no spending limits on 501(c)(4)s thanks to the 2010 U.S. Supreme Court Citizens United decision.
Mark Herron, a well-known Tallahassee elections attorney often consulted on ethics issues, said the defining line on the use of such nonprofits in elections comes down to “intent.”
“Often times, people ask for 501(c)(4)s for the explicit purpose of hiding contributions,” Herron said. “I will not do that. I believe to do that is illegal under Florida law.”
Asked last week why his organization has used and continues to use Secure Florida’s Future as a donation vehicle for political candidates and causes rather than direct contributions, Wilson did not directly answer the question. He also did not directly address how payments his non-profit made to Uthmeier’s PAC fighting marijuana legalization, or those made five years ago that helped finance election interference, squared with Secure Florida’s Future mission of economic education.
Instead, in his email to the Florida Trident, Wilson wrote: “Secure Florida’s Future is a 501(c)(4) non-profit, non-political, social welfare organization that promotes the community’s general welfare through outreach and education on issues…
“As you likely know, your inquiry into how Secure Florida’s Future raises and spends its funding is protected by the well-established constitutional privilege of association afforded to 501(c)(4) organizations and their donors. Secure Florida’s Future does not make exceptions to this associational privilege.”
Michelle DeMarco is an award-winning investigative reporter who returned to journalism after more than two decades in public service. Contact her at demarco@flcga.org The Florida Trident is part of the Florida Center for Government Accountability (www.flcga.org), a non-profit organization that facilitates local investigative reporting across the state and is dedicated to helping enforce open government laws.