Florida Chamber president facing renewed scrutiny over Hope Florida scandal
On Oct. 30, 2024, Mark Wilson, president and CEO of the Florida Chamber of Commerce, appeared at an event with Gov. Ron DeSantis to urge people to vote against Amendment 3, the initiative to legalize marijuana in the state.
"We have got to say no to this fraudulent amendment," Wilson said. "It's a scam."
At the time he was decrying a supposed "scam" being perpetrated by supporters of Amendment 3, Wilson was himself secretly involved in what a Leon County grand jury would later describe as a "sophisticated scheme" to divert $10 million in taxpayer money into the governor's political activities.
In fact, Wilson's role in the Hope Florida scandal was critical, and a review of campaign finance records and IRS tax filings raises new questions about Wilson and the chamber's involvement.
In late September, the DeSantis administration diverted $10 million from a Medicaid settlement into the Hope Florida Foundation. That money should have been returned to the state's general fund, the grand jury concluded, but officials in the governor's office wanted the money to subsidize their campaign against Amendment 3.
Diverting the money into the Hope Florida Foundation was the first step. But as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, the Hope Florida Foundation was prohibited from engaging in political campaigns. So the next critical step was to get the money out of the foundation quickly and quietly.
The grand jury found that the ultimate destination for nearly all of the $10 million was the PAC set up by the governor and his then-chief of staff, James Uthmeier. That PAC was called Keep Florida Clean.
Legally, however, the money couldn't be transferred directly from the Hope Florida Foundation to Keep Florida Clean because it would have jeopardized the foundation's nonprofit, tax-exempt status.
Instead, according to the grand jury report, two organizations were used as buffers to move the money out of the Hope Florida Foundation before transferring it to Keep Florida Clean. One was Save Our Society from Drugs. The second was Secure Florida's Future, the chamber's dark-money PAC.
On Oct. 13, 2024, Wilson, as executive director of Secure Florida's Future, submitted a $5 million grant application to the Hope Florida Foundation. A few days later, Save Our Society from Drugs submitted its own $5 million grant application to the foundation.
Both grants were quickly approved. Within days of receiving the money, the two groups transferred nearly all of it to Keep Florida Clean, which was working with the Republican Party of Florida to defeat Amendment 3.
Since CBS News Miami published the sealed grand jury report last month, most of the attention has focused on Uthmeier's involvement, as well as the role played by Ashley Moody, who was attorney general at the time and authorized the initial diversion of $10 million from the Medicaid settlement into the Hope Florida Foundation.
The focus on Moody and Uthmeier is understandable. A few months after authorizing the transfer, Moody was appointed by the governor to the U.S. Senate. Uthmeier was then appointed by DeSantis to replace Moody as attorney general.
Moody and Uthmeier are on the ballot this year.
Wilson, however, has largely escaped scrutiny.
In his grant proposal, Wilson wrote that Secure Florida's Future would use the $5 million "to raise awareness of Hope Florida's efforts."
Hope Florida is first lady Casey DeSantis' initiative to move people away from government assistance and toward religious and other groups for help. The grand jury noted it could find no evidence to support the claim that the program was effective.
Wilson detailed how he would use the $5 million to benefit Hope Florida.
"Specifically, awareness will be raised through webinars, podcasts, in-person statewide summits and meetings, newsletters, surveys, and e-communications to business community leaders," he pledged.
Wilson even wrote that the multimillion-dollar awareness campaign by Secure Florida's Future would not only help Hope Florida but would ultimately assist the hundreds of thousands of children stuck in the cycle of generational poverty.
"With data and proposed solutions to the identified ten root causes of this generational poverty cycle," Wilson wrote, "we offer a multifunctional approach to heighten awareness, leverage stakeholder group resources and attract private sector partners for the advancement of the Hope Florida mission."
The money Wilson was applying for was part of a settlement over the state's overbilling under the Florida Healthy Kids program, meaning the $10 million diverted to the Hope Florida Foundation should have been returned to the state to help poor, sick children.
Sen. Rick Scott emphasized that point after the scandal first broke, posting on social media: "Millions in tax dollars for poor kids have no business funding political ads."
A few days after Wilson submitted his grant proposal, the Hope Florida Foundation wired him the $5 million. Within a few weeks, Wilson would send a total of $4.85 million to Uthmeier and DeSantis' Keep Florida Clean PAC.
Likewise, Save Our Society from Drugs sent $4.75 million to Keep Florida Clean.
Nearly two years after he first submitted it, Wilson's original grant application is drawing renewed scrutiny.
CBS News Miami asked Wilson to provide any documentation showing that his group had done any of the things he had promised in his grant application.
Where are the podcasts, the webinars, the newsletters and the surveys?
CBS News Miami did find one event the chamber hosted with Casey DeSantis to talk about Hope Florida, but such events with the governor's wife are not uncommon for the chamber. There is no indication the event was the result of the $5 million grant the group had received.
In fact, the grand jury found that Wilson "mischaracterized the use of the funds in his grant application and then used them for political purposes."
Wilson did not respond to the detailed questions sent to him by CBS News and instead provided the following statement: "Thank you for your outreach. As I have said repeatedly, Secure Florida's Future follows all laws and all rules, always has, always will."
Nevertheless, numerous questions remain.
In his testimony to the grand jury, Wilson said he was "tipped off" by the chamber's lobbyist, Frank Walker, to apply for the $5 million grant. But who tipped off Walker?
Walker did not respond to a request to answer that question.
Also, in his grant proposal, Wilson wrote, "Your donation is not designated for, and has not been solicited for, any specific use or support of any third-party entity."
And yet, four days after writing that grant, Wilson transferred $2 million to the Uthmeier-DeSantis PAC Keep Florida Clean to fight the marijuana amendment, with more to follow.
The grand jury found that with "the quick disbursement of these funds" it appeared this was the plan from the start. If that's the case, Wilson's claim that the money had not been "designated for, and has not been solicited for, any specific use or support of any third-party entity" would have been false.
A review of tax filings for Wilson's Secure Florida's Future also raises questions.
In its filing released earlier this year, Secure Florida's Future reported that the $4.85 million it sent to Keep Florida Clean was for "General Support" and not for political purposes.
The grand jury, however, concluded that the money was sent to support political activities.
The tax filing for Secure Florida's Future is also inconsistent with how the other group, Save Our Society from Drugs, reported its spending to the IRS.
Because Secure Florida's Future and Save Our Society from Drugs each received $5 million from the Hope Florida Foundation and both immediately routed nearly all of the money to the Uthmeier-DeSantis PAC Keep Florida Clean, it would be reasonable to expect their tax filings to be similar.
But they are not.
While Secure Florida's Future listed the money sent to Keep Florida Clean as "General Support," Save Our Society from Drugs listed it under "Political Campaign and Lobbying Activities."
Another question raised by both the grand jury report and the tax filings involves the Hope Florida Foundation itself.
After the scandal first became public, state Rep. Alex Andrade, who helped uncover the $10 million diversion, told the Hope Florida Foundation board that it should take immediate action to recover its money.
"I believe, based on the information you received from Save Our Society from Drugs and from Secure Florida's Future, that a fraud was committed on y'all in order to extract those two $5 million grants," Andrade told the board members. "I would encourage you members as the board, as fiduciaries on this board, to strongly consider recouping those funds from Secure Florida's Future and Save Our Society from Drug."
Andrade noted that because the money the Hope Florida Foundation gave away was used in a political campaign, the foundation could lose its tax-exempt status, especially if it was not trying to get the money back.
A year after Andrade urged the board to act, it has not taken any steps to recoup the $10 million.
Bob Schafer, chair of the Hope Florida Foundation board, did not respond to a request for comment. He also did not respond to questions about whether the board has seen any tangible benefits from the $5 million it gave to Wilson's Secure Florida's Future.
It is not clear what the Hope Florida Foundation is currently doing.
There are no meetings scheduled for the foundation on its website. Under "Upcoming Meetings," the website lists one for June 30, 2026.
The board's attorney, Jeff Aaron, has not responded to a public records request for routine documents the foundation is legally required to maintain, including meeting minutes, agendas, and conflict-of-interest statements for individual board members.
In addition to Schafer, the other board members listed on its website are Elizabeth Butler, Fatima Perez, Yaffa Popack and Bradford Smithy.