The hits just keep on coming.

And we’re here for all of it!

On April 20, 2026, the Campaign Legal Center in Washington, DC, announced that it had “filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) alleging that Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, through senior campaign advisors and agents, violated federal campaign finance laws by using an elaborate straw donor scheme to funnel hundreds of thousands of dollars in excessive, corporate and/or foreign money into her 2022 congressional campaign.”

The press release went on to announce, “Based on investigative findings recently released by the U.S. House Committee on Ethics, CLC’s complaint details how Petrogaz-Haiti — a Florida company that received all of its funding (over $12.5 million) from the government of Haiti — funneled over $725,000 in illegal contributions through two 501(c)(4) “dark money” corporations, Progressive People Inc. and Truth & Justice Inc., to illegally finance Cherfilus-McCormick’s campaign. CLC’s complaint also explains that because the straw donor scheme at issue was not part of the Justice Department’s criminal indictment of Cherilus-McCormick, and the House Ethics process can at most only expel her from Congress (without fining her or holding the other persons and entities involved accountable), it is imperative that the FEC take action to enforce the law.”

One of those “senior campaign advisors and agents” is none other than the current occupant of the mayoral seat in North Miami Beach, Mike “Michael” Joseph .

And as we have already told you, Michael Joseph was the President (now Director) of “Progressive People Inc., a Florida Not for Profit Corporation (PPI), that raised and transferred large sums of money in potential violation of state and federal laws.”

In a later blog, we also reported that “Michael Joseph was the direct go-between for the purpose of soliciting campaign contributions for Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick from a foreign national.”

While we wait patiently, and probably in vain, for Miami State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle to actually do her job and arrest Michael, we are thrilled to see that there’s at least one organization out there that wants justice to be served!

Needless to say, we are ecstatic that Michael Joseph’s chickens are finally coming home to roost.

The 125-page complaint details the same report published by the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Ethics that we previously told you about, and explains, “One of the most egregiously unlawful schemes outlined in the House Ethics report is a straw donor scheme involving Truth & Justice, Inc., Progressive People, Inc., Petrogaz-Haiti, S.A., LLC, and the Haitian government.”

The complaint goes on to state that Petrogaz-Haiti, S.A., LLC, is a Florida corporation owned by Frederic Elusma, and that it is “reportedly tied to PetroGaz-Haiti S.A., a Haitian ‘public limited company.'”

The complaint continues, “While the Haitian company does not disclose its shareholders to the public, former Haitian Senator Rony Célestin—whom the United States has sanctioned for drug trafficking and Haiti has charged with killing a journalist— has identified himself as one of the shareholders and acknowledged a business relationship with Elusma.”

In addition, the Haitian company “received at least $12.5 million from the Ministry of Economy and Finance of Haiti” and had “had no other major sources of income during that time or in 2022.”

The complaint goes on to connect Michael Joseph to this “scheme” by personally mentioning him a total of twenty-nine (29) times, beginning on page 6 and through page 93, and spells out exactly how he illegally obtained the foreign money for Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick.

In paragraph 15, the complaint explicitly states [emphasis ours], “Progressive People Inc. (“PPI”) was a shell company used to accept illegal contributions intended to benefit Cherfilus-McCormick’s campaign, both by directly paying for campaign expenses ($21,800) and by transferring funds ($725,000) to another shell company, Truth & Justice Inc. (“TJI”), that was used to pay campaign expenses. North Miami Beach Mayor Michael Joseph, Corlie McCormick—Cherfilus-McCormick’s husband—and Chantrell McCormick served as PPI’s directors and were the only people with access to its bank account.”

Furthermore, the complaint explains, “As described below, the vast majority of the money PPI used to pay for Cherfilus-McCormick’s campaign expenses was contributed by Petrogaz and its owner, Elusma.”

Paragraph 16 of the complaint states, “On April 25, 2022, Petrogaz hosted a reception for Cherfilus-McCormick, where she met privately with Elusma and his family at a meet-and-greet organized by Mayor Joseph. Four days later, on April 29, 2022, Petrogaz made its first contribution ($50,000) to Cherfilus-McCormick’s campaign via PPI. In total, Elusma and Petrogaz contributed $810,000 to PPI during 2022. Cherfilus-McCormick, upon taking office, hired Elusma’s son as a paid intern in her congressional office.”

Paragraph 17 through 21 tracks the foreign money that Michael Joseph’s shell corporation laundered from Petrogaz-Haiti to Cherfilus-McCormick’s campaign as well as a company owned by her brother, Edwin Cherfilus, that “was used to make at least $10,000 in unreported payments on behalf of Cherfilus-McCormick’s campaign.”

The Campaign Legal Center’s complaint also gave a dishonorable mention to Michael Joseph’s henchman and ringleader of his “Anonymous” Surrogate Army, Hector Roos, who also played his part in the laundering of illegal foreign funds as Sheila Cherfilus-McCormicks “senior campaign manager.”

The complaint goes even further to allege that Michael Joseph was granted “special favors” when he requested monetary appropriations from the newly elected Representative Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick’s Community Project Funding (CPF).

Beginning with paragraph 265 of the complaint, the allegations state, “From February 22, 2022, to December 16, 2024, Mr. Joseph served as treasurer of Respondent’s Leadership PAC, Protecting Democracy. Protecting Democracy reported to the FEC that it received $13,300.00 in contributions and made $5,000.00 in disbursements between July 2022 to October 2024. Protecting Democracy’s bank statements show that some contributions were not reported or were misreported.”

The complaint continues, “On April 12, 2022, a legislative staffer attended a meeting in the campaign office with Individual 1 and Mr. Joseph. The legislative staffer understood the purpose of the meeting to be ‘to tell [the staffer] which projects [] had to be submitted [to] [A]ppropriations.'”

Furthermore, “Mr. Joseph and Individual 1 ‘ordered’ the legislative staffer to submit the following CPF requests to Appropriations:”

Two of these organizations stand out as very curious indeed, which casts even more suspicion on whether or not Michael Joseph personally benefited by the windfall of “Appropriations.”

As we all know, Michael Joseph is way less than six degrees of separation from North Miami Beach EX-City “Attorney” Hans Ottinot, who is a former Vice President of the Haitian Lawyers Association, Inc.  We are not surprised that Michael requested $2.5 MILLION for the organization which was once headed up by Andre Pierre, the former and unindicted corruptocrat extraordinaire mayor of North Miami.

The second questionable and so-called “not for profit” organization, Spearhead Affordable Homes of Florida, for which Michael requested $5 MILLION to fund “Washington Park of Broward County,” was formed on April 19, 2022 according to its Articles of Organization.

However, this alleged “non-profit” was administratively dissolved in 2023 for not filing an annual report for 2023.

In fact, if you search for “Spearhead Affordable Homes of Florida” on the Broward County Affordable Housing website you will come up empty handed.

As usual, we are not surprised.

Anything that Michael Joseph is involved with is always shady AF!

We will keep you posted on this new development.

Stephanie