By Francisco Alvarado, www.floridabulldog.org
Oliver Gilbert, the Miami-Dade County commissioner who is U.S. Congresswoman Frederica Wilson’s heir apparent, steered roughly $3.2 million in taxpayer funds to a murky nonprofit youth sports league run by one of his top county aides.
With little oversight, transparency or discussion, the Miami-Dade County Commission approved 28 requests by Gilbert between 2023 and March of this year to provide Miami-based FYFL United with money for services that are vaguely described in commission records as “community support and outreach,” “spring break trip,” “summer youth internships” and “laptop giveaway event.”
The FYFL then redirected the funds to Gilbert’s pet projects. For instance, requests labeled as “spring break trip” funded all expenses paid excursions led by Gilbert himself to fly dozens of high school students to historical sites in various cities, including Washington, D.C.
The ease with which Gilbert funneled county monies through FYFL United sheds light on a common monthly practice by county commissioners to shower favored community organizations with taxpayer funds without any public debate. Such “discretionary” spending amounts to more than $4 million every year.
Nearly each request to benefit FYFL United, which has no physical office, was for a six-figure sum. According to Internal Revenue Service records, however, the league hasn’t filed a Form 990 tax return since 2023. Federal law requires 501(c)(3) registered charities with more than $50,000 in annual revenue to file annually.
The non-profit organization’s principal address is a P.O. box inside a Staples store in Miami’s Edgewater neighborhood. Its administrator is Sandra Pierre-Paul, who makes $165,500 annual salary as Gilbert’s fulltime deputy chief of staff. She’s been part of Gilbert’s inner circle since his days as Miami Gardens mayor in the 2010s when she was his executive secretary.
Gilbert is running to succeed Wilson in November’s general election. His opponent is Republican Te Mayonna Brown, a real estate developer. The majority black and heavily Democratic district they hope to represent includes Little Haiti, Brownsville, Biscayne Park, North Miami Gardens, Opa Locka in Miami-Dade and Pembroke Park, West Park and parts of Miramar in Broward.
Civic watchdogs who reviewed Florida Bulldog’s findings called for independent audits and investigations into the nexus between Gilbert, Pierre-Paul and FYFL United. “This connection merits further scrutiny,” said Caroline Klancke, executive director of Tallahassee-based Florida Ethics Institute. “This matter would be ripe for examination if a complaint were to be filed against Sandra Pierre-Paul or Oliver Gilbert.”
Ben Wilcox, co-founder of Integrity Florida, also based in Tallahassee, concurred. “It looks really bad,” Wilcox said. “The public would be generally concerned about the use of taxpayer money here, and also the connection with the deputy chief of staff raises real concerns about corruption.”
Gilbert, 54, declined to be interviewed for this story, nor did he respond to an emailed list of questions about the taxpayer funds he funneled to FYFL United, including if he or Pierre-Paul sought opinions from the county attorney’s office or the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and Public Trust about any potential conflicts of interest.
Instead, Gilbert’s chief-of-staff, Akeem Brutus responded with an emailed statement insisting that the funds provided to FYFL United served legitimate community programs, and that the nonprofit did not control how the monies were spent.
“FYFL United served as the fiscal agent for programs created, sponsored, and administered through the District 1 County Commission office,” Brutus said. “These funds were not payments to FYFL United for services, nor were they income or profit to FYFL United.”
Brutus noted that FYFL United’s staff are volunteers, including Pierre-Paul. “Neither she nor FYFL United receives a financial benefit from FYFL United’s role as fiscal agent,” Brutus said.
GILBERT’S POLITICAL ASCENSION
A string of scandals when he was mayor of Miami Gardens, including a criminal money laundering probe, hasn’t slowed Oliver Gilbert’s ascent into the upper echelons of South Florida political power.
In 2020, then-Miami Gardens Mayor Gilbert ran for the county commission. He narrowly defeated activist Sybrina Fulton, the mother of Trayvon Martin, a teen fatally shot in Sanford by a self-appointed neighborhood watcher. The 2012 killing sparked national outrage about Florida’s self-defense laws.
During Gilbert’s campaign for the District 1 commission seat, he was cleared of criminal wrongdoing after a two-year investigation into allegations he committed money laundering, made a false statement and violated state campaign finance reporting law. The Miami-Dade ethics commission also closed without penalty a related inquiry against Gilbert.
A close-out memo by the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office shows the investigation found troubling irregularities in his 2016 Miami Gardens mayoral reelection campaign finances but insufficient evidence to prove he knowingly broke the law.
Prosecutors examined a $14,000 payment to Champion Learning Inc., a for-profit company sharing an office suite with Gilbert’s Miami Lakes law practice, the 15-page memo states. On his campaign’s finance report, the $14,000 was identified as a donation to a “501(c)3 firm” even though Champion was not itself a tax-exempt charity. Champion’s president, Kendra Bulluck-Major, was also linked to Gilbert’s law office and helped handle his campaign finances.
But investigators said they could not establish beyond a reasonable doubt that Gilbert, his campaign treasurer or others knowingly made false statements, laundered money, or used campaign funds for personal benefit.
Gilbert maintained he did nothing wrong. His attorney, H.T. Smith, said the campaign’s compliance work was handled by friends and relatives, not professional staff, and any inaccuracies were mistakes rather than criminal acts. Gilbert also claimed the allegations were politically motivated.
Since his promotion to Miami-Dade government, Gilbert has positioned himself as one of the most influential politicians on the county commission. In 2022, his fellow commissioners elevated him from vice chair to commission chair, unanimously giving him power to appoint committee chairs and vice chairs and oversee key commission offices. He chaired the county commission until 2024 when he secured a second term without opposition.
When U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson announced in May that she would retire at the end of her term, Oliver Gilbert entered the crowded race to succeed her in Florida’s 24th Congressional District. He secured Wilson’s endorsement, which helped propel Gilbert to first place in an August Democratic primary that also featured State Sen. Shevrin Jones and Kendrick Meek Jr., the grandson of the late Congresswoman Carrie Meek.
HOW FYFL UNITED GOT COUNTY FUNDS
On May 2, 2023, the Miami-Dade County Commission approved without discussion a request Oliver Gilbert made the day before to provide $90,000 from the county commission’s discretionary reserves to FYFL United for “Community Events and Laptop Give-A-Away Event,” according to a memo signed by Gilbert.
That marked the first tranche of funds Gilbert delivered to FYFL United, according to a Florida Bulldog analysis of community-based organization funding requests by Gilbert between 2020 and September of this year. In 2023, FYFL United got two additional funding requests from Gilbert totaling $74,000
In the past three years, the county commission has authorized more than two dozen requests by Gilbert to provide funding to FYFL United with the most recent allocation, $100,000, approved on March 3 for “community event support.” On January 21, commissioners unanimously approved Gilbert’s request to send the FYFL $150,000 for “community program support.”
In 2025 and 2024, the county commission approved 22 requests by Gilbert, giving FYFL a combined $2.6 million, including $200,000 for a “spring break trip” and $370,000 for a “summer youth internship program.”
Typically, the county commission approves about $4.3 million annually for “discretionary” uses that is divided into $335,000 allotments for each of the 13 commissioners that they then dole out to community-based organizations that make funding requests. However, county commissioners can vote to supplement “discretionary funds” after the budget is approved. For example, in May 2025, county commissioners approved a budget amendment that included an additional $3.5 million in “discretionary funds.”
At their upcoming Oct. 6 regular meeting, several county commissioners are looking to send tens of thousands of dollars to various groups. For instance, county commissioners Keon Hardemon and Kionne McGhee are seeking $14,000 and $10,000, respectively, for the Orange Blossom Classic, a college football game played every September between Florida A&M University against another historically black college. Commissioner Raquel Regalado is requesting $10,000 to sponsor a “best practices” conference put on by the Miami-Dade League of Cities, and Commissioner Rene Garcia wants $15,000 for “community outreach” to go to National Shrine of Our Lady of Charity, a Catholic church in Coconut Grove.
The process for county commissioners to dole out taxpayer money to community groups makes it easy for them to reward favored non-profit organizations with minimal scrutiny. County commissioners can formally sponsor and request additional countywide or supplemental funding for community-based organizations through board resolutions and budget amendments that are placed on agendas as consent items. These legislative actions are considered routine, non-controversial, and will be voted on together with other similar items in a single, collective motion without individual debate.
Community groups are only required to fill out a half-page form that includes a single line asking what the funds will be used for, along with a completed W-9 form. The documents are then submitted to a commissioner’s district office. A commissioner follows up by sending an allocation memo to the Miami-Dade Office of Policy and Budgetary Affairs requesting the funding on behalf of the entity. The office then places the consent item on a county commission agenda, Audits are only performed on a random basis by the Office of the Commission Auditor and the Miami-Dade Inspector General.
The funds that passed through FYFL United served a legitimate purpose, funding various initiatives for residents and young adults throughout Miami-Dade, not just District 1, Akeem Brutus, Gilbert’s chief of staff, said in his emailed statement. For instance, FYFL United served as the fiscal agent for a public information campaign to educate homeowners paying a water and sewer surcharge about their water bills, how surcharge revenues were being spent and “Commissioner Gilbert’s proposed transparency and accountability requirements,” Brutus said.
Funds received by FYFL bankrolled five spring break trips since 2021 that provided approximately 250 high school students, along with 20 adult chaperones and law-enforcement personnel, with an “all all-expense-paid educational experience” to eight states and Washington D.C., including “multiple civil rights expeditions through the South,” Brutus said. He added that the taxpayer money covered airfare, lodging, meals, transportation, program apparel, admissions and other program expenses, as well as advance logistical planning by District 1 staff.
In addition, funds sent to FYFL for summer youth internship program were used to pay approximately 120 to 150 high school students $15 an hour and college student $18 an hour to work at businesses in District 1, Brutus said.
FYFL UNITED LACKS PAPER TRAIL
Utilizing a non-profit agency to administer funds for county programs and services has been an existing county practice since before Gilbert was elected to the District 1 seat, Brutus explained. Previously, District 1’s fiscal agent was Miami Gardens-based Concerned African Women that charged an 8 percent administrative fee, Brutus said.
“[Concerned African Women] later indicated that because of the volume and intensity of the work that fee would need to increase to 15 percent,” Brutus said. “The District 1 office believed too much money intended for community programming would be lost to administrative costs and changed to FYFL United, which agreed to serve as fiscal agent without charging an administrative fee.”
However, FYFL United is still required to disclose to the IRS the funds received from the county and how those monies were allocated. A fiscal agent’s role is to provide financial management, accounting, or administrative support on behalf of another entity.
The FYFL United was incorporated as a non-profit company in 2021 by Sandra Pierre-Paul, Gilbert’s deputy chief of staff, public documents show. She was listed as the registered agent, secretary and treasurer. In 2023, Pierre-Paul was replaced as registered agent, secretary and treasurer by her daughter, Jah’Meela Samuel.
A search of the Internal Revenue Service’s non-profit database only shows a 2021 tax return for FYFL United that listed $54,241 in revenue and $1,974 in expenses. No individuals were paid. In 2022, the IRS sent a letter addressed to Pierre-Paul stating that FYFL United was designated as a “public charity.” The same year, FYFL United filed an e-Postcard in lieu of a tax return because the organization claimed its annual revenue was less than $50,000. The organization has not filed anything with the IRS for 2023, 2024 and 2025.
While FYFL United is incorporated in Florida as a nonprofit, it is not registered as a charitable organization with Florida’s Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.
In mid-August, during Florida Bulldog’s reporting, FYFL United’s website was temporarily taken down and replaced by a message that said, “your account has been suspended.” The website was back online four days after Florida Bulldog reached out to Gilbert and Pierre-Paul for comment, but remains out of date.
The league’s social media pages on Facebook and Instagram also appear dormant. No new photos and videos have been posted since November of last year even though the 2026 youth football season began in August. Teams that were part of FYFL United are playing in other South Florida leagues for the 2026 season.
FYFL United President Martin Maltsby told Florida Bulldog he doesn’t “discuss” the county funding received by the nonprofit and hung up on a reporter.
Pierre-Paul followed Maltsby’s lead. “If he wouldn’t discuss it, then I am not going to discuss it,” she said before hanging up. Pierre-Paul also ignored an email sent to her county work address with a list of questions about FYFL United.
Pierre-Paul and Gilbert have likely violated county and state law prohibiting public officials from deriving a benefit from their government positions, Caroline Klancke with Florida Ethics Institute told Florida Bulldog. “Sandra Pierre-Paul appears to have a contractual relationship with this non-profit organization,” Klancke said. “Under the code of ethics, she is prohibited from doing business with her agency, the Miami-Dade County Commission.”
Klancke also raised alarms about FYFL United’s miniscule public presence. “It shows a lack of capability to serve the youth these funds are intended for,” she said. “It shows a lack of transparency. They don’t even have a physical office. These are a troubling set of facts.”
Integrity Florida’s Ben Wilcox said Miami-Dade residents are entitled to know if Gilbert ever disclosed Pierre-Paul’s connection to FYFL United when he submitted the funding requests.
“It all reeks of corruption that was deliberately hidden by using the consent agenda to avoid closer scrutiny,” Wilcox said. “I also find it shocking that the county does not require even minimal documentation of how these funding allocations were spent.”
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