State officials who accused a nonprofit run by the wife of former Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson of bilking the government for more than $132,000 in improper payments are now lowering the estimated total.

The N.C. Department of Health and Human Services now says the group booked $101,000 in questionable payments.

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Yolanda Hill shut down the nonprofit, Balanced Nutrition, just after her husband became the Republican Party's nominee for governor in early 2024. The DHHS investigation came to light soon after.

Balanced Nutrition helped child care businesses get reimbursed by the federal government for food purchases. The nonprofit was allowed to take a cut of that government funding for itself, and Hill and other family members received hundreds of thousands of dollars over the course of multiple years, records show.

DHHS accused Balanced Nutrition of inflating its expenses by submitting the same receipts multiple times, submitting claims for more money than receipts show, and filing claims for at least one child care center that allegedly never asked for — or received — the money that Hill’s group took on its behalf.

In August, DHHS said Balanced Nutrition needed to pay back more than $132,000. The state agency has oversight of such federal funds and enforces rules meant to protect against mismanagement or wrongdoing. The legal team for Balanced Nutrition met with DHHS officials in September and presented their side of the case.

In a letter to Hill and her lawyer this week, DHHS officials said they were still finding Balanced Nutrition in violation but decided to lower the amount owed to $101,142, based on the information they received from the nonprofit in that September meeting. Payment is due in early February.

Hill and Robinson previously said the allegations were trumped up to damage Robinson’s political career. He’s a Republican; DHHS is run by the governor’s office. The investigation began under former Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, and this most recent development has come under the administration of Democratic Gov. Josh Stein, who defeated Robinson at the ballot box in November.

Stein’s wife, Anna Stein, has done work for DHHS as a part-time employee of the state human resources office. DHHS said in August that she had no role in the Balanced Nutrition investigation or the broader division that handles such investigations.

State officials also alleged that Balanced Nutrition violated rules for dozens of state regulations, including by failing to provide meals that met minimum standards for nutrition.

A spokeswoman for DHHS said Balanced Nutrition can still appeal the latest findings. The group had 15 days to appeal after the letter was sent on Jan. 7. Anthony Biller, the Balanced Nutrition lawyer, didn’t respond to a request for comment.

If the findings aren’t appealed, or if they’re upheld on appeal, Balanced Nutrition would have 30 days to pay off the balance owed. After that, the state would start adding interest to what’s owed and could also send the debt to collections.

Robinson, a hardline social conservative, easily won the 2024 Republican Party primary over challengers who tried making his financial problems a top campaign issue. Voters brushed aside a history of bankruptcies, tax liens and evictions to make him the party’s candidate for governor against Stein. Robinson leaned into his financial history on the campaign trail, saying he didn’t mind talking about it because it showed how far he had come and helped him connect better with struggling families.

Stein won the general election by 15 points, approximately 55% to 40% — the most lopsided election for North Carolina governor in nearly half a century.During the 2024 campaign Stein mostly stayed away from mentioning Robinson’s financial issues — instead focusing on the lieutenant governor’s previous statements opposing abortion, among other things. The Stein campaign also made an ad about a daycare Robinson and Hill had run in the early 2000s, before Balanced Nutrition. The ad said they put children in danger by failing to run background checks on their employees and leaving children unattended, and alleging that “the daycare center even operated at times without lights, heat or running water.”

Robinson’s campaign spokesman was quoted at the time criticizing it as “cherry-picking a few minor violations and clerical errors to grind a political ax.”