As David Jolly aims to turn Florida governor’s office blue, he confronts his prior ties to an alleged fraudster

October 15, 2026 / 1:25 PM EDT / CBS News

Less than two weeks after David Jolly launched his Democratic campaign for Florida governor last year, a Tampa grand jury indicted his former boss for allegedly siphoning over $100 million from a nonprofit set up to manage the assets of people with disabilities.

Jolly has called the alleged actions of businessman Leo Govoni "raw cruelty." He has also distanced himself from Govoni, telling voters in a July video that he "was an employee of Mr. Govoni's at a separate company from which the theft later occurred," and "from public filings, his activities appear to have occurred almost exclusively after we left his employment."

While Jolly didn't work at the nonprofit that was the source of the allegedly stolen money, he did work at a for-profit firm where the money was allegedly sent. Federal prosecutors said Govoni had used the firm to enrich himself. And a forensic accountant found that millions of dollars moved from the nonprofit to the firm during the period when Jolly worked there, according to filings from a related court case reviewed by CBS News.

Nothing in the court documents suggests that Jolly knew about or was…

Original source: https://www.cbsnews.com/entertainment/