State health officials are turning to collections agents to secure $101,000 from a nonprofit run by the wife of former Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, according to department officials.
The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services last year alleged that Balanced Nutrition, which was founded by former second lady Yolanda Hill, booked more than $101,000 in questionable payments in recent years. The state sought repayment, which was due in February. DHHS sent two letters — dated March 26 and April 28 — to Balanced Nutrition leaders demanding payment.
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The department didn’t receive payment, said Summer Tonizzo, a DHHS spokesperson. So, on June 9, the department began its internal process of sending the balance to the state Department of Justice for collection, she said.
Hill and Kimberly Cephas, operations manager for Balanced Nutrition, didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment Thursday afternoon. Anthony Biller, a lawyer for Balanced Nutrition, also didn’t respond to requests for comment.
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.
The group was accused 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 Hill’s group took on its behalf. 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.
DHHS initially said the group needed to pay $132,000 but later lowered the total to about $101,000 after the nonprofit’s legal team presented their side of the case during a meeting with DHHS officials in September.
Hill shut down Balanced Nutrition after Robinson became the Republican Party's nominee for governor in early 2024. The DHHS investigation came to light soon after.
Hill and Robinson have argued that 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 recent developments have come under the administration of Democratic Gov. Josh Stein, who defeated Robinson at the ballot box in November.
Robinson, a hardline social conservative, easily won the GOP’s gubernatorial primary last year over challengers who tried making his personal financial problems a top campaign issue. Voters overlooked 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 handily in November, in what was the most lopsided race for governor in decades. Robinson has since said he has no current plans to go back into politics.