If the government puts a decimal point in the wrong place and overpays you by $5 million, what would you do with it? In the case of one Florida business, it may have been cashing the check and loaning money to help their CEO get elected to Congress.
It’s a decision which left the business in trouble with the law.
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Florida is suing healthcare services company Trinity Health Care Services, which the state paid to register people for COVID-19 vaccinations.
Except instead of paying the planned amount of $50,578.50… Florida paid them $5,078,500.00.
And now, the state wants the money back, alleging the company took the money despite knowing it was an overpayment.
But the money may help explain a years-long mystery about how a congresswoman’s ethical report showed a massive jump in funding from 2020 to 2021.
Reporter Jacob Rubashkin with the non-partisan newsletter Inside Elections noted Trinity’s then-CEO, Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, loaned herself $6.2 million to fund a congressional campaign. Chefilus-McCormick has served as a Democratic member of the House since 2022.
In the case against Trinity, the state is asking for the company to cover state costs including damages and attorney’s fees. The company did not comment to a USA Today affiliate in Tallahassee when they broke the news about the lawsuit.
Cherfilus-McCormick faces a separate, unrelated investigation by the House’s independent Office of Congressional Ethics, which is looking at whether she failed to report possibly illegal payments to a political action committee and other possible misuses of campaign funds.
