4 December 4-10, 2025 miaminewtimes.com | browardpalmbeach.com NEW TIMES | MUSIC | CAFE | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | NEWS | LETTERS | CONTENTS | 3 MONTH XX–MONTH XX, 2008 miaminewtimes.com MIAMI NEW TIMES | CONTENTS | LETTERS | RIPTIDE | METRO | NIGHT+DAY | STAGE | ART | FILM | CAFE | MUSIC | ▼ MIAMI FINGERED! FEDS SAY CONGRESSWOMAN SPENT STOLEN FEMA FUNDS ON A FANCY RING. BY ALEX DELUCA L ast week, a federal grand jury in Miami indicted Democratic U.S. Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick on charges that she stole millions in federal disaster-relief funds. A federal indictment accuses Cherfilus- McCormick, 46, and her brother, Edwin Cherfilus, 51, of conspiring to steal $5 million in Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) funds that were accidentally over- paid to their family health care company in 2021. The money was allegedly “routed through multiple accounts to disguise its source” before being funneled into Cherfilus- McCormick’s congressional campaign. But while much of the criminal case fo- cuses on the money Cherfilus-McCormick al- legedly funneled to her campaign, the indictment also highlights a more personal extravagance: a $109,000 gem, to be exact. According to the indictment, Cherfilus- McCormick also used some of the federal di- saster money to purchase a more than $100,000 3.14-carat “Fancy Vivid Yellow Dia- mond” ring from a jewelry store headquar- tered in New York City. She allegedly used a $109,000 cashier’s check to buy the ring on September 1, 2021. Her official portrait on the U.S. House of Representatives site, among other places, shows her sporting a flashy yellow diamond ring stacked atop a diamond band. The rings bear an uncanny resemblance to two styles sold by luxury jeweler Tiffany & Co. New Times took the liberty of sending a photo of the rings to a Tiffany & Co. client advisor. “This appears to be the Tiffany Fancy Yellow Single Row Celeste, and the Victoria Band ring,” the advisor replied when asked whether the company carried the jewelry. The former ranges from $36,000 to $94,000, depending on carat weight (though custom orders can re- quest a larger carat weight for a heftier price tag), while the latter retails at $24,500. According to the International Gem Soci- ety, fancy vivid yellow diamonds can be sold for $8,000 to $16,000 per carat. The rare gemstones have an intense yellow hue and are highly valuable due to their color. Cherfilus-McCormick’s attorneys did not respond to New Times’ request for comment. The first Black legislator to represent Florida’s 20th congressional district, which encompasses parts of western and central Broward County, as well as a swath of Palm Beach County, Cherfilus-McCormick was first elected to Congress in 2022 to fill the va- cancy created by the death of longtime Rep. Alcee Hastings in 2021. She won the primary in the heavily Demo- cratic district by five votes and was re-elected without opposition in No- vember 2024. In 2026, she’s set to face 27-year- old Broward County ac- tivist Elijah Manley in the Democratic primary for the District 20 seat. As previously re- ported by New Times, in March 2021, Florida’s Division of Emergency Management hired Cherfilus-McCormick’s Miramar-based Trinity Health Care Ser- vices to register people for COVID-19 vac- cines. That spring, Trinity sent the state an invoice of $50,578.50. But while the state intended to pay Trinity that amount, a decimal error led to a $5,057,850 payment — an overpayment of five million dollars, according to a January 2025 lawsuit. The suit claimed that the $5 million was just one of several overpayments, totaling more than $5.7 million, and that Trinity ulti- mately refused to return the money. Federal Election Commission (FEC) re- cords show that after the state signed the contract with Trinity and the overpayment occurred, Cherfilus-McCormick —Trinity’s CEO at the time — loaned her campaign $6.2 million, which she then used to win a 2022 congressional race against Republican Drew- Montez Clark. Records show that Cherfilus-McCormick loaned herself millions of dollars for her 2022 congressional campaign across more than 100 payments during the 2021-2022 cam- paign cycle, ranging from $7 to $2 million. [email protected] | RIPTIDE | U.S. Rep. Sheila Cherfilus- McCormick’s official portrait shows a yellow diamond ring on her finger. New Times artist conception/Photos by U.S. House of Representatives ▼ SEAQUARIUM MASS MIGRATION? SEAQUARIUM RESIDENTS MAY SOON BE ON THE MOVE. BY NAOMI FEINSTEIN N ow that the Miami Seaquarium is closed for good, the owner of the shuttered marine park has disclosed its plans for relocating its surviving animals. The Mexico-based Dolphin Company, which recently sold its Virginia Key waterfront lease to local developer David Martin for $22.5 million, revealed in a new bankruptcy filing that it in- tends to relocate the animals to zoos, aquari- ums, and wildlife centers in states including Washington, Indiana, Virginia, and Kansas. The bankruptcy judge still has to approve the trans- fer of the assets — in other words, the animals. Miami Seaquarium, which first opened in 1955, shut its doors last month after years of contro- versy and troubling reports of animal safety vio- lations. Last year, Miami-Dade County terminated the facility’s lease on the publicly owned site, cit- ing the “long and troubling history” of animal welfare violations and marine mammal deaths. A bankruptcy judge later approved a $22.5 million sale to Martin’s development firm, Terra Group, which plans to transform the 38-acre site into a waterfront dining village featuring a marine pub- lic baywalk and an aquarium (sans marine mam- mals). The Miami-Dade commission is set to vote on the lease transfer terms next month. As the park’s owner prepared to relocate the animals following the marine park’s closure, ani- mal rights activists and former Miami Seaquar- ium trainers urged the Dolphin Company to pause the relocation, assess the health of the sur- viving animals, and develop a plan to move them to sanctuaries or release them back into the ocean. Two bottlenose dolphins have died at the marine park in the last three months. ‘We urge you to please evaluate all remaining animals for possible release, and for those who cannot be released to go to reputable sanctuaries where they can have some semblance of a natu- ral life,” Tracy Rei- man, president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), wrote in an Octo- ber 9 letter to the Dolphin Company. “Some of these captives were taken from their natural homes and may be able to be safely returned to them. According to the November 20 court filing, the Dolphin Company plans to send the surviving animals to the following locations: Brookfield Zoo Chicago: The Dolphin Com- pany wants to transfer ownership of a 22-year- old bottlenose dolphin named Noelani to the Brookfield Zoo in Illinois for $10,000. The filing notes that the female dolphin is already at the facility as part of a previous loan agreement. Nova Wild: The filing states that the Dolphin Company wants to transfer 27 American flamin- gos to the Nova Wild zoo in Reston, Virginia. Tanganyika Wildlife Park: The Miami Seaquarium owner proposes sending 11 African penguins to the Tanganyika Wildlife Park in God- dard, Kansas. Seattle Aquarium: The Dolphin Company is looking to transfer a 12-year-old male harbor seal to the Seattle Aquarium. Zoo Miami: The Dolphin Company hopes to send two Argentine black and white tegu, a bearded dragon, a blue-tongued skink (a non- venomous lizard), a ball python, and one uro- mastyx (a spiny-tailed lizard) to Miami-Dade’s Zoo Miami. Dolphin Life: The Dolphin Company proposal includes transferring Zo, a 19-year-old male bot- tlenose dolphin; Aries, a 23-year-old male bot- tlenose dolphin; Ripley, a 32-year-old male bottlenose dolphin; and Onyx, a 26-year-old male bottlenose dolphin, to the dolphin rescue center, Dolphin Life, in Key Largo. Dolphin Research Center: The Miami Seaquar- ium owner plans to transfer two dolphins, three harbor seals, and two sea lions to the Dolphin Re- search Center on Grassy Key in the Florida Keys. The dolphins are Samantha and JJ. The two sea li- ons are named Raleigh and Clyde, and the three seals are Baby, Ace, and Cane. Sea Lion Splash: The Dolphin Company pro- posal also includes the transfer of three harbor seals and nine California sea lions to the traveling sea lion show Sea Lion Splash. Animal rights ac- tivists, including PETA, have called on local county fairs to cancel the sea lion shows, which occur three times a day. “The Dolphin Company is as bankrupt morally as it is financially, as after years of subjecting the animals in its clutches to a life of deprivation and misery, it now plans to extend their suffering in- definitely by shipping animals off to a seedy trav- eling show where they’ll be forced to perform circus-style tricks and treated as nothing more than props for photo ops,” PETA president Rei- man said in an emailed statement to New Times. “These animals have been through hell, and PETA is pleading for them to finally be allowed some semblance of a normal life at a reputable facility.” A PETA press release also noted the animal rights group’s grievances against Sea Lion Splash. “Sea Lion Splash has been cited for a lit- any of violations of the Animal Welfare Act—in- cluding keeping saltwater animals in freshwater and failing to provide sea lions with adequate veterinary care,” it reads. Indianapolis Zoo: The Dolphin Company hopes to transfer four bottlenose dolphins, Cay- man, Cobalt, Denise, and Gemini, to the India- napolis Zoo. [email protected] “SOME WERE TAKEN FROM THEIR NATURAL HOMES AND MAY BE ABLE TO BE SAFELY RETURNED TO THEM.”
