Justice Dept. Charges Democratic Lawmaker with Stealing FEMA Funds

The Washington Post

11:53 JST, November 20, 2025

Federal officials have indicted Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-Florida) on allegations that she used her family’s health care company to steal from a FEMA-funded covid-19 vaccination contract and then used the money to bolster her 2021 congressional campaign, the Justice Department announced Wednesday.

Cherfilus-McCormick was charged alongside multiple co-defendants, including her brother and her tax preparer.

The investigation into Cherfilus-McCormick and her alleged accomplices dates to the Biden administration.

Law enforcement officials say that in July 2021 the health care company received an overpayment of $5 million, which appeared to be the result of a clerical error. Instead of returning that money, Cherfilus-McCormick allegedly funneled some of it to friends and family, who then made donations to her campaign, according to the Justice Department. Such straw donations, as they are known, would be illegal under campaign finance laws.

She also used some of the money to self-fund her campaign, the Justice Department alleges.

“Using disaster relief funds for self-enrichment is a particularly selfish, cynical crime,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement. “No one is above the law, least of all powerful people who rob taxpayers for personal gain. We will follow the facts in this case and deliver justice.”

Cherfilus-McCormick’s spokesperson and an attorney for the lawmaker did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The indictment against Cherfilus-McCormick and her co-defendants was not posted on public court dockets Wednesday evening.

The South Florida lawmaker was first elected to Congress from a heavily Democratic district that covers parts of Broward and Palm Beach counties in a special election in 2022. She filled the seat vacated by Rep. Alcee L. Hastings (D), who had died in 2021, and after the special election, she won the general election later that year. She is currently running for reelection.

Cherfilus-McCormick has long been under scrutiny for this alleged theft and campaign violations.

The state of Florida sued the health care firm that Cherfilus-McCormick once led – Trinity Health Care Services – saying the accidental overpayment amounted to $5,007,271.50 and that the company “knowingly processed an invoice more than 100 times its typical invoice size.” Local media reports said that Cherfilus-McCormick settled that lawsuit and agreed to pay back the state over the next 19 years.

The House Ethics Committee is also investigating Cherfilus-McCormick, according to a statement from the committee in January.