Head of LA homeless nonprofit charged with stealing over $10 MILLION in taxpayer funds, spending it on luxury travel, home

Soofer, the executive Director of the Hyde Park-based charity Abundant Blessings, is alleged to have pocketed at least $10 million, using the funds for a down payment on his $7 million Westwood home, spending nearly $500,000 on a Greek vacation property, and millions more on home upgrades, private schooling for his children, stays at luxury resorts, private jet travel, and more.

https://twitter.com/USAttyEssayli/status/2014763210780393795?s=20

First Assistant United States Attorney Bill Essayli said in a statement, "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. 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 tax papers. This money should have gone to those in need, instead [it] lines the pockets of individuals subsidizing their lavish lifestyle."

Per the Department of Justice, Soofer’s charity had been contracted with the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) to provide housing for homeless people or those at risk of becoming homeless. He had multiple contracts with the agency by July of 2023 to provide housing and support services to more than 600 homeless people across South Los Angeles, receiving more than $23 million in homeless housing funding between 2018 and 2025.

Of those millions, over $5 million came from the LAHSA, and over $17 million came from Special Services for Groups Inc, a downtown Los Angeles-based non-profit.

In the contracts, Soofer allegedly agreed to offer housing for people either at sites he managed or through third parties such as hotels or motels, and to provide participants with three meals per day that were described in the contracts as "healthy, balanced, and met participants’ nutritional needs."

Instead, the DOJ said that Soofer "was misappropriating millions of dollars for himself," and "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." He created fake and misleading invoices to make it appear as though payments were legitimate.

A LAHSA investigator asked Soofer if his charity’s board knew how he was spending the funds, which Soofer allegedly said they did. However, the investigator later discovered that the board was fake, with members either non-existent or never having heard of Abundant Blessings or Soofer.

Site visits were conducted by city and county investigators after receiving numerous hotline complaints and noticing billing discrepancies, and found that "the only food items being served at these sites were things such as Ramen noodles, canned beans, and breakfast bars – which was in contrast to the three-meal-a-day commitment Soofer had made and for which the City of Los Angeles had paid."