{"id":116163,"date":"2026-01-13T09:16:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T09:16:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/116163\/"},"modified":"2026-01-13T09:16:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T09:16:07","slug":"st-pete-mayors-campaign-reports-former-treasurer-over-alleged-unauthorized-transactions-more-than-200k-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/116163\/","title":{"rendered":"St. Pete mayor\u2019s campaign reports former treasurer over alleged unauthorized transactions more than $200K"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Brief<\/p>\n

St. Pete Mayor Ken Welch\u2019s re-election campaign reported its former treasurer over more than $200,000 in unauthorized transactions.<\/p>\n

Yolanda Brown resigned as the campaign’s treasurer in September.<\/p>\n

Payments were made to an LLC also in her name.<\/p>\n

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – St. Petersburg<\/a> Mayor Ken Welch\u2019s political committee said it has reported its former treasurer to state and federal authorities after discovering what it describes as more than $207,000 in unauthorized transactions taken from the campaign without permission.<\/p>\n

Welch\u2019s campaign<\/a> said it demanded the money be returned, but when it was not, the committee moved to notify authorities.<\/p>\n

READ: Bill introduced to make Greenland 51st state<\/a><\/p>\n

What we know<\/p>\n

According to election filings reviewed by FOX 13, Yolanda Brown, of Fort Lauderdale, served as treasurer, and briefly as chairperson, for The Pelican Political Action Committee, the committee supporting Welch\u2019s reelection campaign. Paperwork obtained by FOX 13 shows Brown resigned in September.<\/p>\n

Campaign finance reports show eight transactions to O\u2019Reilly Business LLC, starting with a $100,000 payment in August, and totaling more than $207,000, the filings show. State records indicate O\u2019Reilly Business LLC is also registered to Brown, with an address listed as a Pak Mail location next to a Publix in Coconut Creek, according to the filings.<\/p>\n

State filings also show Brown runs Brown Financial and Consulting Services Group LLC, which received about $7,000 last year from the campaign for work performed. The company\u2019s address is listed as a Pak Mail location next to a Publix in Fort Lauderdale, records show.<\/p>\n

\"<div>Pictured:<\/p>\n

Pictured: St. Pete Mayor Ken Welch.<\/p>\n

MORE: Florida Lt. Gov Jay Collins jumps into Sunshine State gubernatorial race to succeed Ron DeSantis<\/a><\/p>\n

On its website, the company said it is a financial services firm that “thoroughly believes in transparency and accountability.”<\/p>\n

Welch\u2019s campaign account shows a balance of about $30,000, according to filings reviewed by FOX 13 \u2014compared to Charlie Crist for Mayor, which has raised more than $700,000.<\/p>\n

What they’re saying<\/p>\n

In a statement provided to FOX 13, the campaign\u2019s attorneys said:<\/p>\n

“Immediately upon discovering these improper transactions, we terminated our contract with our former treasurer and appointed a new treasurer. We demanded the return of funds from our former treasurer. While we assumed the funds would be returned and the former treasurer provided us a transaction receipt for a wire transfer of the funds back to the committee, the funds have yet to be returned. Accordingly, we are in the process of notifying the appropriate state and federal authorities.”<\/p>\n

FOX 13 asked Welch\u2019s campaign which specific agencies have been notified, but officials did not say.<\/p>\n

The other side<\/p>\n

FOX 13 also called and emailed Brown on Monday. As of publication, no response has been received.<\/p>\n

The Source<\/p>\n

The information in this story was gathered by FOX 13’s Genevieve Curtis through details provided by St. Pete Mayor Ken Welch’s re-election campaign, election filings and campaign finance reports.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Brief St. Pete Mayor Ken Welch\u2019s re-election campaign reported its former treasurer over more than $200,000 in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":116164,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[58652,58653,2346,202,204,203,199,201,200,58651,58650,3525],"class_list":{"0":"post-116163","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-st-petersburg","8":"tag-campaign-finance-reports","9":"tag-fox-13","10":"tag-ken-welch","11":"tag-st-pete","12":"tag-st-pete-headlines","13":"tag-st-pete-news","14":"tag-st-petersburg","15":"tag-st-petersburg-headlines","16":"tag-st-petersburg-news","17":"tag-treasurer","18":"tag-unauthorized-transactions","19":"tag-yolanda-brown"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116163"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116163\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}