On May 27, 2025, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed Bill 999 which would make Gold legal tender in the state of Florida, but this paper (which I began months ago but now finally catching up to it as of 10/3/2025) will argue that Ron’s move may have been in a part a distraction from his wife’s Hope Florida Foundation welfare fraud scandal, as well as another move by Ron to turn the Sunshine State into the personal fiefdom of the one-percent, including that of foreign capital.

The Tampa Bay Times back in April 2025 first broke the story of alleged money laundering scheme via Casey DeSantis’ charity called Hope Florida. The article in which this first broke is titled: Here’s where $10 million donation to DeSantis’ Hope Florida effort went, written by Lawrence Mower and Alexandra Glorioso on 11 April 2025 (updated on 25 April 2025).

So, the Tampa Bay Times drops a bombshell in April and just a few weeks later, Ron DeSantis is pushing a gold legalization initiative. I am not trying to oversimplifying things by saying one led to the other, and it is very well possible that DeSantis had planned his gold bill beforehand, but there is chance that DeSantis is in defense mode. Thought COVID is a real thing that affects people, the days of the lockdown are gone. So, Ron doesn’t have the main issue that propped him up in the eyes of conservatives. Donald Trump allegedly called Ron DeSantis, “Meatball Ron” and “Tiny D”. With COVID over and the Trump Administration being seen as the closest things we have had to a legit dictator, it seems as if on the state level there are little unseen rebellions happening away from the national news circuit. Unpopular president and the pandemic a thing of the past, there are other Republican sharks swimming for Ron’s territory, yet, Ron’s odd hatred of marijuana (which could have made Florida billions of dollars to help fill welfare budgets) may be his undoing. He and his wife seem to have funneled public funds from a Medicare settlement towards partisan political agendas and away from the impoverished or near-impoverish recipients of Florida welfare.

This is personal for me because I was born in Florida, have family there, and live there for time in my childhood. I am very familiar with Florida, be it the “Good Ole Boy, country” Northern Panhandle, to the snowbird suburbia’s and master planned communities of Central Florida spanning from Tampa Bay all the way to Cape Canaveral on the Space Coast, and all the way down to the melting-pot (with its healthy dose of Tri-State area Yankee refugees) living in South Florida. Florida is a great state but it is weird. The weirdness is either quirky on a good day or isolating, polarizing, and manic on a bad one. It is the type of state where everyone is one their own. There’s an air of something Right Wing in the air. It is all about money. You see mansions here but trailers parks or projects there. Towns have their concrete strip malls which has family friendly Publix grocery stores or a blackened out window porn shop. It is a place of mega churches (which spawned a unique youth community of the “Christian metal or metal-core” scene), the Church of Scientology, US military special forces at MacDill AFB or Hulbert Field and the Space Industry, drug traffickers, snowbirds, rednecks, ghettos, anti-communist Cubans, endangered manatees, Florida man sightings, and elderly people wanting to stretch their dollar in their final years.

The more I read into this, I am surprised to see that DeSantis is less popular that I originally thought, and does not seem to hold absolute consensus with Florida Republicans.

But what is Hope Florida?

From my reading, it is a Christian based non-profit set up by Casey DeSantis which has “care coordinators” trying to get poor people to not use state welfare programs and rather rely on a rolodex of private or church resources.

But, there appears to be the Hope Florida non-profit entity, but a parallel “Hope Florida Foundation” which serves as the charity arm. Things were not looking good for the Desantis’ because even their own employee testified that their bookkeeping was sloppy. Mower et al (2025) stated that House Republicans found that the foundation, created by the state in 2023, wasn’t complying with state laws requiring it to disclose its mission, three-year plan, code of ethics, tax returns and other records. Board meetings were also being held in secret, violating state law.

Steve Rabey (20 May 2025) of Baptist Global News, summarized the event by stating, “A $10 million scandal has engulfed Hope Florida, a charity founded by Casey DeSantis, wife of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, that was created to help needy people get help from faith groups and nonprofits rather than the state. The problem began when Hope Florida’s fundraising arm, the Hope Florida Foundation, allegedly received improperly $10 million from a $67 million Medicaid settlement with the state. Then Hope Florida improperly funneled the funds to a political committee chaired by the governor’s chief of staff (revealed to be James Uthmeier in an article by Mower and Glorioso, and Garcia), who gave $5 million each to two groups fighting an effort to legalize cannabis in the state. Gov. DeSantis was an outspoken opponent of legalization. The effort lost narrowly. Hope Florida Foundation had revenue of $850,000 in 2023, the year before it received $10 million from the state.” Further, Rabey (2025) stated, “Florida’s Republican-led Legislature had assigned a committee to look into irregularities in how the funds were received and spent. The Republican head of that committee said the charity had committed money laundering and wire fraud and forwarded its conclusions to the state attorney’s office, which has opened an investigation.’

Mower, Glorioso, and Garcia (2025), stated that his committee probe was started by  Rep. Alex Andrade, a Pensacola Republican, and then handed over findings to the State Attorney Jack Campbell (Note by MRG author: he is a Democrat but considered moderate). Andrade said in April that he believed Uthmeier and Jeff Aaron, a lawyer for the Hope Florida Foundation, “engaged in a conspiracy to commit money laundering and wire fraud.” (Lawrence Mower, Alexandria Glorioso, Justin Garcia, 3 October 2025, The Tampa Bay Times). Further, Mower et al. (2025) stated that when seeking to prosecute someone, a state attorney can file charges against them or choose to present evidence before a grand jury, composed of citizens who then must decide whether there is probable cause to issue an indictment and move to a trial. Grand juries are not usually called by prosecutors unless they feel they have potential evidence of a crime. The juries can also be used by prosecutors to avoid issuing charges themselves, which can be useful in politically loaded cases. (Mower et al. 2025).

According to Rabey (2025), “Foundation leader Joshua Hay testified that the foundation failed to file records required of nonprofits and that it operated without formal bylaws. ““I cannot confirm what the funds were used for,” Hay told the state legislature. “We have no monitoring procedures. We have no staff.”” (Rabey, 2025).

According to Julia Manchester of The Hill (26 April 2025), “Prior to entering the political realm with her husband, Casey DeSantis worked as a producer and on-air host in Florida for the PGA Tour. She then worked as an anchor and reporter at two Florida television stations.” Manchester (2025) also talked about how DeSantis may be in Republican primary competition with fellow Republican, Bryan Donalds, and stated, “A Mason-Dixon Polling & Strategy survey released in March showed Casey DeSantis with a 53 percent approval rating, slightly higher than that of Donalds, who came in at 48 percent. A separate poll released in March conducted by Republican firm Fabrizio Lee and Associates found that 34 percent of likely Republican primary voters said they preferred Donalds for the role while 30 percent said they preferred the state’s first lady.” Further, Donalds was seen hugging state House Speaker Daniel Perez (R), who has been locked in a feud with Ron DeSantis (Manchester, 2025).

Manchester (April 2025) further elaborated by stated, “She launched “Hope Florida— A Pathway to Prosperity” in 2021. The state government program is implemented by the Florida Department of Children and Families (Manchester, 2025). The controversy that has drawn headlines in recent weeks concerns a $10 million payment to the foundation. Critics argue this money was inappropriately used to help campaign against a ballot measure that would have legalized recreational marijuana in the state last November. That money, critics say, was part of a settlement agreement involving the state’s largest Medicaid contractor, Centene. According to them, a chunk of that settlement, all of which was intended to be returned to state and federal coffers, was sent to the Hope Florida Foundation and eventually ended up in the hands of political groups that campaigned against the ballot measure. Ron DeSantis was among the politicians opposed to the measure’s passage.” (Manchester, April 2025).

Manchester (April 2025) further stated, “On Tuesday, Florida media obtained a draft agreement of the settlement that suggested $10 million of that money was funneled through the charity connected to the organization founded and promoted by Casey DeSantis and eventually sent to two nonprofit groups involved in the campaign against the ballot measure.” 

Mowet, et.al (2025), of The Tampa Bay Times (3 October 2025), stated, “In recent weeks, the State Attorney’s Office in Tallahassee has subpoenaed witnesses to testify before a grand jury during the week of Oct. 13, according to two sources familiar with the matter who spoke with the Times/Herald.” Who those witnesses are — and who is being investigated — have not been disclosed. State Attorney Jack Campbell declined to comment (Mower, Glorioso, Garcia, 2025)

In the article by Manchester (2025) she mentioned how Ron DeSantis is in something akin to a civil war with other Republicans in the state legislature, so this controversy to me, just shows how dramatic things are in Florida politics but rarely makes the national news relating to ongoing storylines.

The Gold Standard is the darling metal of people who oppose modern governmental finances. From Libertarians, the Austrian School of Economics, etc., the gold standard is symbolic of rejecting modern Keynesian styled economics, which ditches gold in exchange for Central Bank mandated fiat currency, where the value of such currency is a balancing act of a state’s finances, economic strengths, trade policies, etc.

Fiat currency allows government to print money rather than limiting their money supply to a finite resource, in which gold can be horded, its purity debased, and posses issues with transporting it.

Many people who oppose modern Keynesian-styled economics often state that fiat currency is naturally inflationary because rampant printing can dilute the value of money thus increasing the overall prices of things, i.e., you need more dollars to buy the same thing.

However, this logic is oversimplified because inflation can be caused by array of factors, such as personal greed, i.e., price gouging, which is often a hallmark in the individual egotism found amongst the libertarian crowd. I can even argue that life itself is naturally inflationary. For example, if everyone is trying to work hard to earn more income, and a lot of people do end up earning higher salaries, then by natural capitalist competition you have experienced inflation since more people have more money, and price may adjust as sellers realize this fact. Inflation simply means to grow. It’s just how fast something grows which can pose problems.

As always when a ship is sinking, you have people start jumping ship.

Erik Dellenbeck, executive director, of Hope Foundation quit on May 1, 2025 to join another non-profit called “Focus on the Family” but previously led the Tim Tebow Foundation, according to Rabey (2025). Dellenbeck also had ties to the now late (deceased) Charlie Kirk.

Gold can also hinder growth whereas fiat currency acts as a type of credit.

For example, look at the sheer about innovation that has arisen since Nixon got off the gold standard. Sure, a candy bar isn’t two pennies anymore, but we also have created economies able to deficit spend to invest, i.e., create demand, that transforms rudimentary economies into advanced, technological ones.

Having more money that is capable of being printed by Central Banks can expand the economic potential and viability of an economy by not restricting growth to a finite money source.

Think of money as the dark matter that underlies the universe. If we are to believe the universe is expanding, fiat currency is like the expansion, whereas gold can be the opposite. For example, we could likely track our modern innovations to be parallel to increases inflation over time. For example, if the United States were on the gold standard in its entirely from post WWII to the present, the United States may not have had enough money to go around to help spur the innovation that made the US a juggernaut. The United States if it truly held itself to a gold standard for during the Cold War may not have the actual cash flow to defeat the Soviets.

But, as with anything in nature there are consequences. For every action there is a reaction. But, fiat currency is not inherently bad, despite what many gold standard advocates preach. Many gold advocates have vested interests in pushing fear to ensure their current gold holdings goes up in value, so scared investors buy said gold, only for the prices to cool off once fear starts cooling off. Further, gold is not cheap and typically only those with money can afford large volumes of gold. The truth is that the wealthy controls both precious metal markets and fait currency systems, and they juggle both to their own favor. Gold is deflationary and fiat is inflationary and both strategies can suit the interests of the wealthy classes.

However, I am not opposed to “currency competition”, however, there is an irony in calling oneself Patriotic, yet betting against one’s own currency by promoting gold to help undermine the strength of the dollar. The United States dollar still is the world’s reserve currency however there are efforts to dethrone it from the loosely goosey alliance of the BRIC nations, to crypto currency, and the ever annoying fear traders in the precious metal markets. But, I do like the idea and freedom of having gold be legal tender, but I disagree with Ron DeSantis argument for supporting it which was bland anti-government Ronald Reagan dribble.

Sources:

Manchester, J (26 April 2025). Casey DeSantis in spotlight amid Hope Florida allegations. Source: https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/5267460-florida-first-lady-casey-desantis-controversy/ (Accessed: 3 October 2025).

Casey DeSantis in spotlight amid Hope Florida allegations

Mower, L., Glorioso, A., Garcia ,J., The Tampa Bay Times. Prosecutors convening grand jury in Hope Florida investigation. Source: https://www.tampabay.com/news/florida-politics/2025/10/03/hope-florida-grand-jury-desantis-charity-casey/

Rabey, S (29 May 2025). DeSantis charity investigated for fraud after misusing $10 million. Source: https://baptistnews.com/article/desantis-charity-investigated-for-fraud-after-misusing-10-million/ (Accessed: 3 October 2025).