Kissimmee, Florida, Mayor Jackie Espinosa was arrested Wednesday morning on charges of grand theft and organized scheme to defraud, state officials announced.
At an afternoon news conference, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier said Espinosa voted to approve the Kissimmee Business Boost 2.0 program, then sought $50,000 through it for herself and her family members. The program was intended to help small businesses recover from the coronavirus pandemic. Uthmeier said Espinosa submitted three applications on the day applications opened in September 2025.
The program’s written guidelines at the time did not prohibit elected officials from applying, as Spectrum News reported in July.
“It was not designed to help government officials enrich themselves,” Uthmeier said Wednesday.
Espinosa has served as mayor of Kissimmee, a city south of Orlando, since November 2024. The mayor’s office is officially nonpartisan; Espinosa is a registered Democrat.
According to jail records, she was booked on one count of grand theft of more than $20,000 and less than $100,000, and one count of organized fraud, involving property valued at more than $50,000.
Espinosa’s attorney, Migdalia Perez, said Wednesday that the mayor “maintains her innocence. This case involves a publicly approved grant program administered by City staff, not a secret scheme to steal taxpayer money.”
“The prosecution must establish that the mayor acted with criminal intent. We firmly maintain that she did not. There is a fundamental difference between an alleged ethics violation and a criminal offense,” Perez wrote in an email to The Washington Post. “The State cannot transform one into the other without proving every element of a crime beyond a reasonable doubt. We intend to challenge these allegations vigorously in court.”
Asked during the news conference how the alleged conduct went beyond an ethics violation, Uthmeier said evidence would show that Espinosa helped shape policies that made it easier for her to obtain the funds.
“I think you can tell by his tone that we’re not too worried about this one,” Uthmeier said, referring to Richard Mantei, the prosecutor leading the case.
In July, special prosecutor Mayanne Downs found probable cause to file articles of impeachment against Espinosa over ethics complaints involving $50,000 in city grant money awarded to three family-owned businesses.
Perez disputed the report’s findings in a statement to Spectrum News. She said city staff had determined eligibility for the grants and denied that Espinosa used her office to obtain preferential treatment. Perez also said the mayor cooperated with the investigation.
Uthmeier said Eric Soskin, who led Florida’s DOGE operation, referred the case to his office. Florida Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia, who also attended the news conference, said an audit by his office identified irregularities in the grants and prompted referrals to investigators.
Officials said they would make charging documents available, but The Washington Post had not obtained them by the time of publication.
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