Los Angeles homeless services CEO charged with defrauding taxpayers to
pay for luxury lifestyle
[January 27, 2026]
By CHRISTOPHER WEBER
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The CEO of a Los Angeles homeless services charity
faces federal and state fraud charges after prosecutors said he lived a
luxury lifestyle that included lavish vacations and designer clothes
paid for with $23 million in public money meant to keep people off the
streets.
Alexander Soofer, 42, was arrested Friday at his $7 million home that
investigators believe he afforded using funds that were supposed to
support his nonprofit Abundant Blessings, said First Assistant U.S.
Attorney Bill Essayli.
The charitable group was contracted with the Los Angeles Homeless
Services Authority, a county agency, to use taxpayer money to find
shelter and provide three meals a day for more than 600 homeless
residents.
Instead, prosecutors said Soofer bought a $125,000 Range Rover, a $2,450
Hermes jacket, a vacation home in Greece and a trip to Hawaii, where he
stayed at the Four Seasons hotel that was famously the setting for the
HBO TV show “The White Lotus.”
“He was living the high life while the people suffering, the homeless,
lived on the streets with no shelter, no food,” Essayli said during a
Friday news conference with Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan
Hochman.
If convicted as charged, Soofer could receive a sentence of up to 20
years in prison, Essayli said. An email was sent Monday seeking comment
from Soofer's attorney, Hilary Potashner.
According to the indictment, Soofer falsified invoices to claim he was
serving fresh meals and renting out rooms while homeless people were
instead fed canned beans and bulk packs of microwavable ramen noodles.
Investigators found Soofer falsified records to cover up the fact that
he paid himself to “rent” properties for homeless people that he already
owned, the indictment said.
“Mr. Soofer called his company Abundant Blessings, but the only abundant
blessings were the blessings he gave himself,” Hochman said.
During the news conference, the prosecutors pointed to concerns that
billions spent to combat homelessness haven’t brought enough people off
the streets. The number of homeless residents across Los Angeles County
dropped 4% last year, according to the annual count released last July.
The tally estimated that some 72,000 people were living in shelters or
in sidewalk encampments countywide.
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Homeless people wait in line for dinner outside the Midnight Mission
in the Skid Row area of Los Angeles, Oct. 25, 2023. (AP Photo/Jae C.
Hong, File)
Los Angeles County officials last March moved to take control of
hundreds of millions of dollars in spending, citing two scathing
audits that found that the homeless services authority spent it
recklessly and without transparency.
Between 2018 and 2025, Soofer received more than $23 million in
homeless housing funding. Of that, more than $5 million came
directly from the county homeless services authority and more than
$17 million came through a Los Angeles-based nonprofit called
Special Service for Groups Inc., the U.S. Attorney's Office said.
None of the money came directly from the state.
Soofer is charged federally with wire fraud and the state charges
include 11 felony counts of conflict of interest, two felony counts
of offering false evidence and five felony counts of forgery.
Soofer appeared in court Friday but did not enter a plea. He was
released on $1.5 million bond and is scheduled to be arraigned in
federal court on Feb. 26. His arraignment on state charges was not
yet scheduled.
The arrests became fodder for the ongoing war of words between
President Donald Trump's administration and California Gov. Gavin
Newsom. After a conservative commentator placed blame for the fraud
on Newsom, the Democratic governor's press office pushed back.
“This case was uncovered by local investigators working with law
enforcement — exactly the kind of accountability and oversight the
state has pushed for,” Newsom's office said.
That prompted a response by Essayli, who again blamed Newsom.
“You and the California legislature facilitated this fraud by
handing out billions in tax dollars to these nonprofits with zero
vetting and zero state oversight,” Essayli said Friday on social
media.
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