‘We never saw it coming,’ mom cries as disabled daughter’s $250k trust fund goes missing – she’s begging for answers

A MOTHER is fearing for her disabled daughter’s future after a quarter of a million dollars vanished from her daughter’s trust fund.

Ashley McDowel says her daughter Mia’s life is at risk after she suspects foul play is the reason that $250,000 disappeared from her child’s trust. 

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“I would love to think that maybe all of this was just poor money management,” McDowel told local NBC affiliate WFLA. 

“I would love to think that.”

McDowel suspects businessman Leo Govoni is to blame for the missing money.

A judge recently held Govoni liable for $120 million in missing money from his nonprofit foundation, the Center for Special Needs Trust Administration.

The Florida mother won seven-year-old Mia’s trust money in a federal medical malpractice lawsuit after Mia had an allergic reaction, causing her to go into cardiac arrest for 22 minutes.

Mia’s cardiac arrest led to severe and irreparable brain damage. 

Now, McDowel is demanding answers into where her daughter’s money went. 

“You’re looking at the person that called — why do you think the Attorney General got involved? 

“It was me,” said McDowel. 

“We started a trust with the Directed Benefits Foundation back in 2023, I thought everything was fine.”

The Directed Benefits Foundation administers disability trusts, and Govoni’s foundation manages those trusts.

“He was at the closing table for my settlement,” McDowel recalled. 

“I had sat down with. I’ve had dinner with this person. 

“I truly trusted him and I think that’s how some of us have gotten victimized because we never saw it coming.”

The lawsuit filed in May 2024 accuses Govoni and associates of robbing victims of $142 million. 

“Know that there are those throughout this state that want to make sure that we are protecting the most vulnerable and those that would take advantage of them need to be held accountable,” Ashley Moody, Former Florida Attorney General, told WFLA.

Since Moody became elected to Senate, McDowel is pleading with the new Attorney General to read through the case with a “fine tooth comb.”

“Take this with a fine tooth comb and audit everything because it reeks that there’s something shady going on,” said McDowel.

Govoni, who has not been charged with a crime yet, refused to answer any of WFLA’s questions. 

As for McDowel, she said she may have to put her daughter in a group home while she works. 

“I might have to put her in a group home because I have to be able to work,” the mother said. 

“I have to be able to figure something out.”

Leo Govoni did not immediately reply to The U.S. Sun’s request for more information.