Florida Accidentally Paid Healthcare Company $5 Million Instead of $50K; CEO Used Extra Funds to Run for Congress: Report

Florida is suing a healthcare company after accidentally paying it over $5 million instead of $50,000, with accusations that the extra funds were used by the CEO to run for congress.

In 2021, Florida's Division of Emergency Management (FDEM) contracted Trinity Health Care Services to assist in registering residents for COVID-19 vaccinations, Tallahassee Democrat reported.

The agency intended to pay an invoice of $50,578.50 in June of that year but erroneously transferred $5,057,850.00—a hundredfold overpayment.

Despite the error, the funds were not returned, and similar overpayments totaling more than $5.7 million occurred during that period.

The issue resurfaced in 2024 when FDEM formally demanded repayment.

According to the lawsuit filed in Leon Circuit Civil Court, Trinity knowingly accepted the inflated payments during the pandemic when the state was operating under emergency conditions.

At the time, Trinity's CEO was Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, who later ran for and won a seat in Congress. Cherfilus-McCormick now faces unrelated ethics complaints while the state claims her company failed to fulfill its obligation to return overpaid funds.

Cherfilus-McCormick is now accused of using a portion of the money from Florida's Division of Emergency Management to fund her 2021 congressional campaign.
The current CEO, Edwin Cherfilus, has declined to comment on the case.

"Trinity took advantage of the state of emergency the entire country was encountering due to the COVID-19 pandemic and knowingly processed an invoice more than 100 times its typical invoice size," according to the state's lawsuit, filed recently in Leon Circuit Civil court.

Originally published by Latin Times