With the massive amount of fraud in Minnesota garnering so much online attention, the investigations into other blue states for suspected cases of similar sorts of massive fraud have continued, and are already yielding major results, such as the recent revelation from the Department of Justice (DOJ) that a fraudulent non-profit in California has been caught bilking taxpayers out of tens of millions of dollars meant for the homeless.
As background, the homelessness situation has been a problem in California for years, and the state has responded to it not with prudent policies or by arresting vagrants, but by throwing ever larger amounts of money at the problem in the hope that spending enough finally fixes it. Based on the DOJ’s recent announcement, it looks like the money has frequently just been stolen.
Announcing as much in an infuriating press release that shows the massive scope of the fraud that has essentially been allowed to occur, the DOJ said, “A Westwood man was arrested today on a federal criminal complaint charging him with fraudulently obtaining $23 million in public money intended to combat homelessness and pocketing at least $10 million of it, including using it for a $7 million house in Westwood, $125,000 Range Rover, private school tuition for his children, private jet travel, and stays at luxury resorts.”
Continuing, it noted that the man involved has been charged with wire fraud. The statement then later went on to describe how the alleged scam worked. Beginning, it noted how he set up a charity to work with the city government, namely the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA), to obtain contracts, which he then used to claim that he was helping the homeless.
Eventually, “Soofer had multiple contracts with LAHSA to provide housing and supportive services to more than 600 homeless program participants at multiple sites across South Los Angeles.” He then used those contracts to collect a massive amount of cash: “In total, between 2018 and 2025, Soofer received more than $23 million in homeless housing funding. Of that, more than $5 million came directly from LAHSA and more than $17 million came through a downtown Los Angeles-based non-profit called Special Service for Groups Inc.”
The statement went on to note that he had been contracted to arrange housing, either at spaces he managed or with hotels and motels, and to provide the homeless participants three nutritious meals a day. As could be expected, he lied, and mainly found ways to funnel the money back into his own pocket.
The DOJ alleged: “But Soofer lied to LAHSA about how he was using the taxpayer money his charity received, falsely stating he used it exclusively to combat the homelessness crisis in Los Angeles, when he was misappropriating millions of dollars for himself. He also lied about payments supposedly being made to third party vendors for homeless housing services and took steps to conceal that he was diverting the money to his personal bank accounts.”
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Eventually, the city figured out his various schemes, such as the fake invoices he was submitting and the fact that he wasn’t actually providing meals to the program participants, and a quick investigation found that the board of the charity itself was fake. “When a LAHSA investigator asked Soofer if his charity’s board knew how he was spending money, he said they did, but the investigator later learned that the board was fake – some of the people did not exist, and others had never heard of Abundant Blessings or Soofer,” the DOJ noted. He now faces up to 20 years in prison.
Commenting on the matter, First Assistant United States Attorney Bill Essayli said, “California is the poster child of rampant fraud, waste, and abuse of tax dollars. The state has facilitated the spending of billions of dollars to combat homelessness, with little to show for it and almost no oversight.”
He added, “Thankfully, the federal government has begun auditing California’s spending and today’s is just one example of how fraudsters have swindled millions of dollars from taxpayers. This money should have gone to those in need, instead in lines the pockets of individuals subsidizing their lavish lifestyle.”
Watch Newsom address the homelessness issue here: