Millions stolen from Miami hospital charity. Where did the money go? Take a look
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Betrayal of Trust
Former Jackson Health Foundation COO Charmaine Gatlin pled guilty to bilking millions in charity funds. A look at the investigation.
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Charmaine Gatlin liked the trappings of a lavish lifestyle — like buying designer handbags and playing golf at a luxury private country club in Weston.
The perks were made possible by the millions she siphoned out of the Jackson Health Foundation, the fundraising arm of Miami-Dade’s only public hospital system. The former chief operating officer pleaded guilty in September to wire-fraud conspiracy and admitted in Miami federal court that she embezzled at least $4.3 million from the foundation between 2019 and 2024.
Prosecutors say she approved fabricated invoices submitted to the foundation by a group of vendors as part of her billing scheme, which spread all the way to Georgia and gave her a kickback of at least $1 million. Sometimes, she would submit fraudulent invoices, too.
Records show Gatlin submitted 14 invoices to the foundation to pay for its board of directors’ golf memberships at the Club at Weston Hills between 2022 and 2023. But there was a problem: The foundation’s board members don’t have golf privileges at the exclusive club. The Jackson Health Foundation said it does not pay golf memberships for anyone.
Foundation emails obtained by the Miami Herald show the club membership was actually under Gatlin’s name. And when the foundation’s finance director called attention to why the membership was not tax-free — normally the case with a nonprofit — Gatlin had an answer:
“This whole membership thing has been a mess,” Gatlin wrote in an email to the finance director, claiming the foundation’s chair at the time determined “it was best” to do an individual member rate instead of the pricier corporate rate.
“They put my name down since I have the foundation email address and listed themselves as the guests,” Gatlin wrote. “By doing a membership rate, we don’t get the nonprofit exemptions. The monthly bills will come to my work email address. So we are stuck with paying taxes.”
In reality, the club’s billing statements show the only people to use the membership were Gatlin and her husband, Arthur, an avid golfer.
The total tab: $23,880.14 – footed by the foundation.
The Club at Weston Hills did not comment on Gatlin’s membership, citing privacy rules.
It wasn’t the only thing for which Gatlin billed the foundation. The nonprofit, whose role is to raise money to help support the mission of Miami-Dade’s safety-net hospital system, found itself unknowingly footing the bill for items and services that were provided to Gatlin, her family, and her former employer, according to her indictment.
This included services for Atlanta-based 100 Black Men of America’s annual conferences, Apple devices and other supplies for yearly back-to-school rallies hosted by a nonprofit affiliated with a Georgia church, and a new rose gold-colored cart that was delivered to her rented Weston home by a Tampa supplier in September 2023.
Gatlin submitted an invoice for the golf cart, which was just over $15,500, around the same time that two golf carts that belonged to Jackson Health System were being repaired by the Tampa company. She listed the expenses under the “transportation account” — by “making it appear as though the new golf cart would be used by Jackson or the Foundation,” according to the indictment.
This story was originally published October 13, 2025 at 2:57 PM.
