FLORIDA BULLDOG Watchdog News You Can Sink Your Teeth Into
PRESS RELEASE — FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Date: March 25, 2026 Source: FloridaBulldog.org — Independent Nonprofit Watchdog Journalism
Florida Bulldog, South Florida’s independent nonprofit investigative news organization, returns with four more compelling investigations that demonstrate why watchdog journalism remains the cornerstone of a healthy democracy. This edition spotlights the deepening mystery surrounding Rep. Byron Donalds’s wife’s charter school empire, the New College of Florida trustees who hid public records and then dodged trial, the scandal surrounding former University of Florida president Ben Sasse’s lavish spending of public funds, and a blockbuster pension fund lawsuit accusing Florida Panthers owner Vincent Viola and partner Douglas Cifu of stealing $400 million from investors. Each story reflects Florida Bulldog’s relentless commitment to following the money, the power, and the truth — wherever they lead.
New Disclosures Deepen the Mystery Surrounding Rep. Byron Donalds’s Wife Erika and Her Charter School Management Business
FloridaBulldog.org | September 2025
Florida Bulldog’s ongoing investigative series into the business activities of Erika Donalds — wife of U.S. Representative Byron Donalds of Naples and a prominent figure in Florida’s school choice movement — has taken on new dimensions with the emergence of fresh financial disclosures and court filings that raise serious questions about the management, governance, and financial practices of the charter school enterprise she has built. The investigation touches on the intersection of political power, public education funding, and private financial gain in ways that demand rigorous public scrutiny.
At the center of the story is Optima Management Services, the for-profit company through which Erika Donalds has operated her charter school management business. Florida Bulldog’s reporting traces the complicated web of entities associated with the Donalds charter school network, including the Optima Foundation, OptimaEd LLC, Onesto LLC, and the Education Freedom Foundation — a constellation of nonprofit and for-profit organizations whose financial relationships with one another and with the public charter schools they manage have raised red flags for auditors, school boards, and now the courts.
The story took a significant turn when Florida Bulldog first reported that multiple charter schools that had previously contracted with the Optima Foundation to manage their operations terminated those contracts — including two Jacksonville Classical Academies and the Treasure Coast Classical Academy. In their filings with Florida’s state auditor general, the Jacksonville Classical Academies specifically cited “deficiencies” in the Optima Foundation’s accounting practices as the reason for termination. The Treasure Coast Classical Academy went further, filing a lawsuit against the Optima Foundation alleging that the nonprofit had violated the terms of its agreement by unilaterally assigning operational duties to OptimaEd LLC — a for-profit entity — without the school’s consent.
The financial disclosures that Florida Bulldog has obtained and analyzed show a dramatic decline in the value of Optima Management Services around the period when those school contracts were terminated. This collapse in the company’s reported value raises questions about whether the business model that Erika Donalds built was sustainable — and whether the public charter schools that trusted Optima with their operations and finances received adequate stewardship of the public dollars entrusted to them.
Adding another layer to the story is the involvement of the House Ethics Committee, which Florida Bulldog’s reporting has noted in connection with the Donalds charter school matter. Rep. Byron Donalds, a prominent figure in the MAGA political movement and considered a potential candidate for Florida governor, has financial disclosure obligations as a member of Congress. Questions about whether the Donalds household’s financial interests in the charter school business have been properly disclosed and whether they create any conflicts with Byron Donalds’s work on education policy are part of the broader picture Florida Bulldog’s reporting examines.
Florida Bulldog has also reported that a new Optima Academy planned for Lee County has now been delayed a second consecutive year, with its opening pushed back to August 2026. The repeated postponements suggest operational challenges within the Donalds charter school enterprise that go beyond the contract terminations already documented. Florida’s charter school sector receives billions of dollars in public funding annually, and the accountability mechanisms designed to protect taxpayers and students from mismanagement are only as effective as the journalism that scrutinizes them. Florida Bulldog’s sustained, document-driven investigation of the Donalds charter school network is a model of exactly that kind of reporting.
New College of Florida Trustees Headed to Trial for Hiding Public Records — Then Dodge Accountability as Watchdog Drops Records Hunt
FloridaBulldog.org | May 2025
The dramatic conservative takeover of New College of Florida — one of the most closely watched battles in the national culture war over higher education — has produced a legal saga that Florida Bulldog has followed from its earliest stages. Among the most troubling chapters: the revelation that trustees appointed to reshape the small Sarasota liberal arts college were headed to trial for allegedly hiding public records, only to ultimately dodge full legal accountability when the watchdog organization pursuing them decided to end its records hunt. The story is a cautionary tale about the limits of sunshine law enforcement when powerful political interests are arrayed against transparency.
The public records controversy centers on communications among New College trustees during a pivotal period in the college’s transformation under the influence of Governor Ron DeSantis and Christopher Rufo — the conservative activist appointed to the board who has been among the most vocal advocates for using New College as a model for remaking public higher education along ideological lines. Depositions taken in the case produced damaging admissions, including statements suggesting that public records were routinely deleted.
Florida Bulldog’s reporting documented the appointment of Richard Corcoran as interim president of New College in a process engineered behind closed doors. In a phone call with Florida Bulldog, Corcoran acknowledged that the only person he spoke with about the appointment ahead of the relevant board meeting was Matthew Spalding — a DeSantis-appointed trustee who also serves as an administrator at Hillsdale College, the conservative institution whose educational vision has inspired New College’s transformation. Hillsdale is listed on the advisory board for Project 2025. Spalding himself described Corcoran as “a friend of mine” of 20 years and said he did not speak with any other trustees before the board voted.
The public records expert pursuing the New College case made clear that even though the lawsuit was ultimately dropped, the fight is far from over: “The totality of the circumstances — based on the sworn deposition testimony, the findings of the judge — provide sufficient evidence for the State Attorney to investigate whether there were criminal violations of the Public Records Act.” The decision to drop the civil case, he emphasized, was not the end of efforts to hold New College officials accountable.
The broader story of New College’s transformation is one of the most consequential in Florida public higher education in decades. Respected academics have been pushed out, academic freedom has been deliberately dismantled, and public funds are being directed toward an ideological project whose accountability to taxpayers remains largely unexamined by anyone other than Florida Bulldog and a handful of other independent reporters. Without persistent investigative coverage, the public would have no window into how this experiment in government-directed higher education is actually unfolding. Florida Bulldog’s coverage has generated significant national attention and has been cited in academic freedom discussions and higher education policy debates across the country.
Ex-University of Florida President Ben Sasse Could Repay the University for His Spending Scandal Losses — But Will He?
FloridaBulldog.org | August 2025
When Ben Sasse — the former Republican U.S. Senator from Nebraska — was recruited to serve as president of the University of Florida in 2022, he was celebrated by Governor Ron DeSantis and the UF Board of Trustees as a transformational leader. What followed instead was a spending scandal that prompted calls from DeSantis himself for an investigation, triggered an audit that documented mismanagement of public university funds, and ultimately ended with Sasse resigning from the presidency in early 2023 — leaving behind financial questions that Florida Bulldog has continued to pursue long after the headlines faded.
Florida Bulldog’s reporting examines a central question that the University of Florida and its Board of Trustees have been conspicuously unwilling to address: should Sasse be required to repay the university for the losses his mismanagement caused? The audit released in February 2025 documented what UF’s own student newspaper, the Alligator, had initially exposed as “exorbitant spending” — a pattern of lavish expenditures during Sasse’s brief tenure that went beyond what any reasonable interpretation of the university president’s role would justify.
The political backdrop to Sasse’s hiring and subsequent departure is itself revealing. Sasse was recruited at a moment when DeSantis was aggressively using his influence over Florida’s public university boards to reshape higher education. When Sasse’s spending habits became a scandal, both DeSantis and then-state CFO Jimmy Patronis called publicly for an investigation — a remarkable position for officials who had championed the appointment. Following the audit’s release, UF issued a seven-page memo by its interim general counsel that, per the Alligator’s reporting, “acknowledged some wrongdoing but defended itself.” The university has not indicated any intention to pursue legal action against Sasse to recover losses.
This posture of institutional self-protection — acknowledging wrongdoing while declining to seek accountability through available legal mechanisms — is itself a significant governance failure. For Florida taxpayers and UF students, the question of whether Sasse will face financial accountability is not merely symbolic. The University of Florida is a public institution that receives substantial state funding. When a president mismanages public and institutional funds and departs without consequence, it sends a deeply troubling signal to future university leaders about the real costs of financial irresponsibility.
The Sasse spending scandal also raises broader questions about the vetting and oversight mechanisms Florida’s public university trustees apply to politically connected leaders. Florida Bulldog’s sustained coverage — from the initial reporting on lavish expenditures through the audit release and the university’s non-response — demonstrates the value of a newsroom that does not move on when institutions go quiet. Florida Bulldog is one of the very few outlets that continues to ask the questions that UF’s board and administration would prefer not to answer.
Pension Fund Accuses Florida Panthers Owner Vincent Viola and Partner Douglas Cifu of Stealing $400 Million from Investors
FloridaBulldog.org | February 2025
In one of the most consequential business and financial investigations Florida Bulldog has published in recent years, the newsroom has reported on a sweeping 84-page lawsuit filed in Delaware’s Court of Chancery accusing Vincent Viola — the billionaire owner of the Florida Panthers NHL franchise — and his longtime business partner Douglas Cifu of stealing approximately $400 million from investors in Virtu Financial, the high-speed trading firm the two men control. The lawsuit, filed by a pension fund, paints a detailed portrait of an allegedly rigged corporate structure designed to enrich Viola and his associates at the direct expense of ordinary shareholders.
The complaint followed an earlier, preliminary suit that had asked a Delaware judge to force Virtu to open its books for investigation of what the fund described as “apparent wrongdoing.” That earlier proceeding gave the pension fund the information it needed to file the comprehensive complaint, which contains extensive new detail about how Virtu is run and how Viola and his associates allegedly structured the company to profit at the expense of those who purchased Virtu’s publicly traded Class A shares.
At the heart of the lawsuit’s allegations is the corporate structure Viola built when Virtu went public in 2015. Using a complex arrangement known as the “UP-C” — Umbrella Partnership Corporation — Viola controls 86.9 percent of Virtu’s voting power through super-voting Class D common stock that carries voting rights but lacks the economic rights that would require him to share proportionally in the company’s financial obligations to shareholders. In plain terms: Viola controls every major company decision without bearing a proportionate share of its financial risks.
The complaint further alleges that Viola has stacked Virtu’s board of directors with family members, friends, and longtime associates — insiders whose loyalties lie with Viola rather than with the public shareholders they are legally obligated to protect. This insider-dominated board, the lawsuit contends, has allowed Viola and Cifu to extract value from the company in ways that systematically harm the interests of Class A shareholders — the ordinary investors and pension beneficiaries whose retirement savings are at stake.
Vincent Viola is one of the most prominent figures in South Florida’s sports and business community. As the Panthers’ owner, he has presided over the franchise’s remarkable rise to Stanley Cup contention. He was also nominated by President Trump to serve as Secretary of the Army in 2017 before withdrawing. The lawsuit, brought by a pension fund whose beneficiaries include working people whose retirement security depends on honest management of their investments, alleges that both Viola and Cifu have violated the fundamental duties of fair dealing owed to public shareholders.
Florida Bulldog’s reporting on this lawsuit is essential for South Florida readers who know Viola primarily as a sports owner and civic figure. When business and sports celebrity intersect with serious allegations of investor fraud, independent investigative journalism must ensure the full picture reaches the public — regardless of how powerful or prominent the individuals involved may be. Florida Bulldog’s coverage ensures that pension beneficiaries and ordinary investors have access to information about litigation that directly affects their financial security.
ABOUT FLORIDA BULLDOG
Florida Bulldog is an independent, nonprofit, nonpartisan investigative news organization serving South Florida and the state of Florida. Founded by award-winning journalist Dan Christensen — a veteran of The Miami Herald and Daily Business Review — Florida Bulldog is staffed by veteran professional journalists whose reporting has triggered criminal indictments, government reforms, and landmark court decisions across more than 15 years of operation. There are no advertisers influencing coverage, no corporate owners, no political agenda — only a commitment to the truth and to the public interest.
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