LA Housing Supervisor Charged With Pocketing Hundreds of thousands for Luxurious Items

Authorities have discovered that some funding to fight homelessness in California has as a substitute ended up in Greece.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has accused Alexander Soofer, supervisor of LA-based housing group Ample Blessing, of “a years-long scheme to defraud the Metropolis and County of Los Angeles and different public entities offering funding for homeless housing.”

In response to a grievance filed on Friday, whereas paying his workers “minimal wages” and feeding residents at his housing websites “ramen noodles, canned beans, and breakfast bars,” Soofer pocketed not less than $10 million “by way of financial institution accounts related to different companies in his and his spouse’s names” for private bills after “fraudulently acquiring” $23 million in public funding.

Federal officers mentioned that between 2018 and 2025, Soofer’s group obtained greater than $5 million instantly from the Los Angeles Homeless Companies Authority and over $17 million by way of different nonprofits.

Investigators discovered Soofer’s misuse of funds contains $47,000 in luxurious house purchases from shops like Restoration {Hardware}, $15,000 at Hermès, $15,000 at Chanel, $1,000 for beauty dermatology, and $4,500 for a four-night keep on the Wynn Las Vegas.

Authorities mentioned they’ve but to find out what Soofer purchased at Chanel, however listed his purchases at Hermès as together with a $1,250 pair of males’s Paris calf-skin loafers, a $910 pair of girls’s Chypre sandals, a $455 Chevaux en Symetrie tie, and a $2,450 males’s trotting jacket.

Along with luxurious manufacturers, the grievance mentioned there’s not less than one property below his title related to the misappropriated funds. That property in query is situated in Greece and pertains to “a $475,000 verify issued from an Ample Blessings checking account.”

The case towards Soofer feeds into considerations that California’s efforts to fight homelessness could also be ineffective and inconsistent regardless of massive spending. In response to the Public Coverage Institute of California, as of 2024, the state had over 187,000 homeless folks, representing about 24% of the nation’s whole.

State Auditor Grant Parks wrote in a 2024 report back to Gov. Gavin Newsom and lawmakers that, when his division analyzed 5 housing applications that obtained roughly $13.7 billion in mixed funding, solely two have been “doubtless cost-effective.”

Parks additionally added within the report that, between fiscal years 2018-2023, California cities lacked dependable information to trace price effectivity and outcomes wanted to completely perceive why the issue did not enhance, regardless of the billions spent by greater than 30 housing applications.

The lawyer’s workplace of the Central District of California referred Enterprise Insider to the press launch and didn’t remark additional. An lawyer for Soofer and the Governor’s workplace didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.