Former Jackson Health Foundation chief operating officer Charmaine Gatlin (Photo courtesy of Facebook).

MIAMI – Former Jackson Health Foundation chief operating officer Charmaine Gatlin pleaded guilty to bilking millions of dollars from the Miami-Dade County’s public hospital system fundraising program.

Thursday in a Miami federal court, Gatlin confessed to orchestrating a wire-fraud conspiracy operation by submitting fake invoices to her former employer between $3.5 million and $9 million for purported fund-raising events.

She also received kickback payments from vendors who never provided services for the Foundation.

In the indictment, the U.S. Department of Justice said Gatlin, 52, spent the money on expensive designer gifts from Louis Vuitton, Gucci, and Apple.

Gatlin also submitted a false invoice to the Foundation to cover the purchase of a new rose gold-colored golf cart that she had delivered to her Weston, Florida home in September 2023.

Gatlin approved approximately $2 million in invoices to a Georgia-based audiovisual company for services that were not provided to the Foundation.

Instead, the vendor allegedly paid $1 million in kickbacks directly to Gatlin, some of which she used to pay her personal credit card bill.

The indictment alleges that Gatlin coached the vendor, via email, on how to falsify invoices.

Gatlin was indicted in May of 2025, with one count of wire fraud conspiracy, 26 counts of wire fraud, and five counts of money laundering.

Gatlin faced up to 20 years in federal prison on each of the conspiracy and substantive wire fraud counts and up to 10 years’ imprisonment on each money laundering count.

But by pleading guilty, she now faces up to three years in prison and she has agreed to back the $2.1 million she falsely received from the Foundation, according to the Miami Herald.