U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli Announces Criminal Task Force to Investigate Fraud and Corruption Involving Homelessness Funds

Bill Essayli resigned from the California State Assembly Last week to accept the appointment of United States Attorney for the Central District of California by the Trump administration.

Newly minted U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli hit the ground running. Tuesday Essayli announced the formation of the Homelessness Fraud and Corruption Task Force. $2 billion of public taxpayer funds has gone missing and is unaccounted for.

“California has spent more than $24 billion over the past five years to address homelessness,” said United States Attorney Bill Essayli. “But officials have been unable to account for all the expenditures and outcomes, and the homeless crisis has only gotten worse. Taxpayers deserve answers for where and how their hard-earned money has been spent. If state and local officials cannot provide proper oversight and accountability, we will do it for them. If we discover any federal laws were violated, we will make arrests.”

The Homelessness Fraud and Corruption Task Force, which will investigate fraud, waste, abuse, and corruption involving funds allocated toward the eradication of homelessness within the seven-county jurisdiction of the Central District of California.

Key to the investigation are all of the agencies involved: “This task force will be comprised of federal prosecutors from the Major Frauds Section, the Public Corruption and Civil Rights Section, and the Civil Division’s Civil Fraud Section of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California. Assisting the U.S. Attorney’s Office will be the FBI, the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development Office of Inspector General (HUD-OIG), and IRS Criminal Investigation.”

Essayli lays out the issues at hand:

Los Angeles County alone contains a homeless population of more than 75,000, of which more than 45,000 are within the city limits of Los Angeles. The total homeless population of the remaining six counties of the district exceeds 20,000.

Despite voter-approved initiatives and billions of dollars spent on tackling this issue, homelessness remains a crisis, especially in Los Angeles County. Last month, a court-ordered audit found that homelessness services provided by the city and county of Los Angeles were “disjointed” and contained “poor data quality and integration” and lacked financial controls to monitor contracts for compliance and performance.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal government sent $100 million in emergency aid to Los Angeles County to address homelessness. Last month, the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development awarded more than $200 million to address homelessness in Los Angeles.

“I am honored that President Trump and Attorney General Bondi have placed their trust in me to serve as United States Attorney for the Central District of California,” upon being appointed and sworn in. “I intend to implement the President’s mission to restore trust in our justice system and pursue those who dare to cause harm to the United States and the People of our nation,” said U.S. Attorney Essayli.

Mr. Essayli served as a federal prosecutor in the office’s Los Angeles and Riverside offices from October 2014 to February 2018. In this role, he prosecuted criminals charged with violent and organized crime, bank fraud, securities fraud and other white-collar criminal matters.

The United States Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California serves the seven counties of Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, and Ventura. This includes a population of nearly 20 million people – the largest of any federal judicial district in the country. The role of the Office is to enforce the laws and defend the interests of the United States. It does so through three primary litigating Divisions: Criminal, National Security, and Civil.