Ethics Group Calls for Investigation of Fla. Democrat Tied to $5.8M COVID Relief Payments

A conservative watchdog group is calling for the congressional ethics committee to broaden its probe into Representative Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D., Fla.). The request stems from an incident where a Florida agency mistakenly paid her healthcare firm over $5 million. It is alleged that these funds were subsequently utilized to support her inaugural congressional campaign in 2021.

The organization known as FACT sent an appeal to the Office of Congressional Ethics requesting them to investigate Cherfilus-McCormick. She continues to be under scrutiny from the House Ethics Committee. Although the congressional ethics body produced a report, the committee hasn’t taken action based on those findings so far.

"The responsibility of the Office of Congressional Ethics is to guarantee that both federal laws and ethical guidelines are enforced for every Representative," the statement read. letter Marked for Monday, it states, "The evidence in this matter unequivocally calls for an inquiry to ascertain whether Representative Cherfilus-McCormick breached House Ethical guidelines and federal campaign financing statutes."

In late December, the Florida Division of Emergency Management sued Trinity Health Care Services in an attempt to recover $5.8 million in overpayments mistakenly made during the Covid-19 pandemic. The state agency hired Trinity in 2021 to help with vaccine registrations.

The agency accidentally sent a payment 100 times higher than the original invoice due to a series of clerical errors. Instead of $50,578.50, Trinity received $5,057,850. Additional errors brought the total to $5.8 million.

During the national state of emergency caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Trinity exploited the situation and deliberately submitted an invoice that was over 100 times larger than usual," the lawsuit claims. "Despite being asked to do so, Trinity declined to refund the excess payments and has retained $5,778,316.45 which they were not justified in keeping and did not earn.

Cherfilus-McCormick allegedly retained the funds and used the money to finance her 2022 congressional campaign. Before running for Congress in 2021, Cherfilus-McCormick resigned as the chief executive of Trinity. The company is based in Miramar, Fla.

In 2021, her earnings rose by over $6 million from the previous year, indicating she might have retained these funds to support her predominantly self-financed campaign. As per records from the Federal Election Commission, this appears to be true. records She lent her campaign over $6.2 million. Almost $4 million of this amount was contributed after the initial $5 million excess.

"The evidence, the sequence of events, and the financial figures clearly point towards misconduct and necessitate an additional probe by the OCE," states the letter penned by FACT Executive Director Kendra Arnold.

Cherfilus-McCormick barely secured victory in the 2022 special primary election following the death of her predecessor, Alcee Hastings. She maintained her position by winning the subsequent general election that same year. The congresswoman then got re-elected in November.

In response to the allegations, Trinity has said it didn’t refuse to return the funds as alleged by the Florida Division of Emergency Management. The health-care service instead claims the agency ignored its response last summer and proceeded to file the lawsuit months later, according to the Sun Sentinel .

“Trinity promptly responded to FDEM’s written demand on July 12, 2024, and stated that it was unable to substantiate crept of any monies in error or any bases of repayment to FDEM, but was nevertheless willing to discuss the basis of the claimed overpayments,” the company said in a court filing. “However, FDEM did not respond to Trinity’s correspondence and instead proceeded to file this lawsuit on December 30, 2024.”

The congressional ethics office’s report The detailed allegations of misconduct against Cherfilus-McCormick include over 30 transactions totaling more than $250,000 from her consulting firm based in South Florida to a Florida political action committee during 2021 and 2022, which were linked to campaign activities. Additionally, the report suggests that she might have wrongly accepted and neglected to disclose non-monetary contributions.

Cherfilus-McCormick, whose actions FACT says violate House Ethics rules and campaign finance laws, has said the report’s findings doesn’t mean she is guilty of wrongdoing.

Cherfilus-McCormick’s office declined to comment on the situation because it “is not an official matter,” a spokesperson told National Review .

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