Newly released grand jury indictment reveals allegations against FL congresswoman
A federal grand jury is accusing Broward Congresswoman Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick of stealing a $5 million overpayment of federal disaster relief funds to her family’s healthcare company, and using the funds to funnel $1.14 million to benefit her 2021 congressional campaign and purchase a 3.14 carat yellow diamond ring, according to the indictment.
The grand jury is charging Cherfilus-McCormick, a Democrat, on 15 counts — including money laundering, theft of government funds, making and receiving straw donor contributions and making false statements on a tax return — according to the indictment, made public Thursday.
The congresswoman’s brother submitted an invoice to the Florida Department of Emergency Services in May 2021 in the amount of $50,578.50 for work performed by the healthcare company where they both worked, Trinity Healthcare Services, according to the indictment.
Two months later, the department added a couple extra zeros and issued a payment of $5,057,850 instead into a Trinity-affiliated bank account controlled by Cherfilus-McCormick and her brother. The congresswoman texted her brother a screenshot of the deposit, which “was the result of a clerical error by FDEM,” the indictment says.
According to the grand jury, the pair then conspired to launder the money and use the millions for their personal benefit instead of returning it back to the state after its error.
Cherfilus-McCormick says she’s falsely accused.
“This is an unjust, baseless, sham indictment — and I am innocent,” she said.
FDEM sued Trinity in civil court over the same overpayment late last year and the company has already agreed to pay back the full $5 million in installments over the next few years, according to a copy of the settlement obtained by the Tallahassee Democrat.
The civil case notwithstanding, the DOJ is now lobbing new criminal charges against Cherfilus-McCormick and three others.
The DOJ alleges that two months after receiving the $5 million, Cherfilus-McCormick and her brother shuffled the money from the healthcare company’s bank account to various accounts controlled or connected to the congresswoman.
According to the indictment, those transfers included
- A $2.4 million check to the bank account of Cherfilus-McCormick’s consulting company
- A $1.2 million bank transfer to an account controlled by relatives of Cherfilus-McCormick
- An $830,000 transfer into another account for which the congresswoman was an authorized signer
- A $334,000 deposit into the bank account of a co-defendant in the case, who the grand jury accuses of having coordinated straw donor contributions to her campaign in June of that year
- And a $190,000 deposit to a bank account linked to the consulting company of the congresswoman’s brother
Personal profit and straw donors
The rest of the 15 counts the DOJ is bringing against the congresswoman are related to the use of those funds and how they were reported on her and her companies’ federal tax returns.
In the flashiest detail of the filing, the DOJ accuses the Congresswoman of using $109,000 of the funds — moved through bank accounts she controlled — to purchase a 3.14 carat “Fancy Vivid Yellow Diamond” ring on Sept. 1, 2021, about two months after the state’s overpayment.
Prosecutors also accuse her of making five transfers totaling $1.14 million from her consulting account — the account that received the $2.4 million in August — to a third bank account “for the benefit of SCM for Congress,” her campaign committee, in September and October.
She is also accused of conspiring to make and receive $25,000 in straw donor campaign contributions. A “straw donor” refers to money transferred to a campaign through an individual that is not the original source of the funds.
To note, the five straw donors prosecutors say made fraudulent contributions to the campaign allegedly made those payments in late June, just before the healthcare company received the $5 million overpayment. The final charges Cherfilus-McCormick is facing are related to her 2021 tax return, in which she claimed $4.6 million in qualifying business expenses and $1.2 million in charitable contributions, which the grand jury alleges are both false.
The congresswoman is planning to fight the charges in court.
“Congresswoman Cherfilus-McCormick is a committed public servant, who is dedicated to her constituents. We will fight to clear her good name,” her attorneys, David Oscar Markus, Margot Moss and Melissa Madrigal, said in a joint statement.
Miami Herald staff writer Jay Weaver contributed to this report.
This story was originally published November 20, 2025 at 4:32 PM.
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