Extensive evidence developed through an investigation by the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Ethics shows that former Florida Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick violated federal campaign finance laws when she and her agents used a “straw donor” scheme to deliberately conceal the true sources of funding behind her 2022 congressional campaign, including funds originating from the government of Haiti that passed through multiple shell companies.
On April 21, 2026, just minutes before the House Ethics Committee was set to deliberate sanctions against her for violating House rules, Cherfilus-McCormick announced her resignation from office, eliminating the House’s jurisdiction to impose sanctions for her violations.
But Cherfilus-McCormick’s resignation should not end the process of seeking accountability here.
Indeed, on April 19, 2026, before Cherfilus-McCormick preempted the House Ethics Committee’s sanction vote, Campaign Legal Center (CLC) filed a complaint calling on the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to hold her and the other persons involved accountable for blatantly violating the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA).
Because it strongly appears that Cherfilus-McCormick allowed special interests — including corporations and/or a foreign government — to illegally finance her campaign, the FEC has a responsibility to hold all parties accountable.
CLC alleges Cherfilus-McCormick committed multiple egregious campaign finance violations.
American democracy belongs to the people, not foreign interests seeking to influence the electorate. That’s why federal campaign finance law bans foreign nationals — including foreign citizens and governments — from spending in federal, state and local elections. Neither should corporate special interests be allowed to corruptly curry favor with candidates, which is why corporations have been barred for over a century from making political contributions to candidates’ campaigns.
Keeping foreign and corporate money out of elections also requires the enforcement of laws that uphold transparency by curbing dark money tactics that special interests use to secretly inject massive amounts of money into elections and tilt the political system in their favor.
According to the House Ethics Committee’s findings, Cherfilus-McCormick and her senior campaign advisors devised and executed an elaborate straw donor scheme — where donors conceal their political donations by passing them through another person or entity — that successfully directed over $725,000 to her campaign.
In this case, the money passed from a Florida company, Petrogaz-Haiti, through two nonprofit organizations, Truth & Justice, Inc. (TJI) and Progressive People, Inc. (PPI), which Cherfilus-McCormick’s close campaign affiliates and family members used to secretly raise funds to pay campaign expenses, thus concealing from the public how the campaign was actually financed. Even worse, during the period that Petrogaz-Haiti funneled this money to Cherfilus-McCormick’s campaign, it had just one source of funding: the government of Haiti, which had given it $12.5 million.
Organizations like TJI and PPI are known as “dark money” groups, incorporated entities that claim to be 501(c)(4) social welfare nonprofits to avoid disclosing their funding sources — which, consequently, allows them to hide the true sources behind their political activities.
However, federal campaign finance laws require that groups whose “major purpose” is influencing federal elections must register with the FEC and file disclosure reports identifying the sources of their funding — something neither TJI or PPI has done, despite having no other apparent purpose than electing Cherfilus-McCormick. As a result, CLC’s complaint alleges that these dark money groups broke the law by not complying with federal registration and reporting requirements.
Moreover, Cherfilus-McCormick’s campaign also broke the law by never disclosing the donations received from TJI and PPI.
Congress and the FEC should hold elected officials accountable for campaign finance violations.
This illegal straw donor scheme is among the long list of egregious legal violations that Cherfilus-McCormick appears to have committed. In addition to the House Ethics Committee’s investigation, the Department of Justice (DOJ) has also indicted her for criminal violations.
But regardless of those other efforts, the FEC — the independent federal agency charged with civilly enforcing federal campaign finance laws — has a distinct and uniquely important role in ensuring accountability for these serious campaign finance violations committed by Cherfilus-McCormick and others.
Even if the House had imposed sanctions before Cherfilus-McCormick resigned, it could not have fined her or required her campaign to update the public record, nor could it have taken any action against the other entities or persons involved in this brazen scheme. Additionally, the DOJ’s indictment does not include the straw donor scheme discussed in CLC’s complaint, nor does it involve all the parties involved in the scheme.
It is up to the FEC to enforce federal campaign finance laws and demonstrate to the American people that blatant illegality in the financing and conduct of our elections will not be tolerated.
Meanwhile, Congress still has the power to make sure situations like this cannot happen again, including passing new pro-transparency legislation like the DISCLOSE Act. This important bill would combat the rising influence of dark money in elections by requiring groups that spend money on elections to disclose donors who have given $10,000 or more during an election cycle.
Under this legislation, the scheme laid out above would not have been possible, and voters would have been informed on the true source of political spending in this campaign.
When candidates and public officials orchestrate illegal schemes to allow secret, foreign money into our election system, the integrity of our democracy suffers. These actions leave voters in the dark about who is spending money to influence their vote.
Campaign Legal Center will continue to call on the FEC and Congress to uphold and strengthen the campaign finance laws that keep our elections transparent and protected from the wealthy special interests seeking to secretly influence the political system. Keep up with our latest actions to do so by subscribing to our newsletter.