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.
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.
FILE - A tarp covers a portion of a homeless person's tent on a bridge overlooking the 101 Freeway in Los Angeles, Feb. 2, 2023. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)
FILE - 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)
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stock indexes ticked higher Monday, while other markets made louder moves, including another record-breaking rush for the price of gold.
The S&P 500 rose 0.5% and won back its losses from last week’s dip. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 313 points, or 0.6%, and the Nasdaq composite added 0.4%.
Baker Hughes helped lead the way and rose 4.4% after delivering a stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. The energy technology company said it’s benefiting from strong momentum in demand for liquefied natural gas, among other things.
CoreWeave climbed 5.7% after Nvidia said it invested $2 billion in the stock and will help accelerate the buildout of CoreWeave’s artificial-intelligence factories, which use Nvidia chips, by 2030 to advance AI adoption. Nvidia slipped 0.6%.
USA Rare Earth rallied 7.9% after saying the U.S. government agreed to provide $277 million in federal funding to help the company produce heavy rare earths, minerals and magnets. The Trump administration also agreed to a proposed $1.3 billion loan, while the company separately raised $1.5 billion through private investors.
Much of the rest of Wall Street was relatively quiet. That included mixed performances for airlines, which had to cancel thousands of flights due to the winter storm that swept much of the United States over the weekend. Delta Air Lines lost 0.7%, and Southwest Airlines added 0.2%.
All told, the S&P 500 rose 34.62 points to 6,950.23. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 313.69 to 49,412.40, and the Nasdaq composite gained 100.11 to 23,601.36.
The action was stronger in the gold market, where the metal’s price rallied another 2.1% and briefly topped $5,100 per ounce for the first time to set another record. Silver surged even more and settled 14% higher.
Prices for precious metals have been soaring as investors look for safer places to park their money amid threats of tariffs, still-high inflation, political strife and mountains of debt for governments worldwide.
The latest worry to pile atop the swelling list was President Donald Trump’s threat to impose a 100% tariff on goods from Canada if it signs a free trade deal with China.
The U.S. dollar’s value also continued its recent slide against peers. Last week, it was U.S. tariff threats related to Greenland that drove some global investors away from the dollar. This time, it was the Japanese yen leaping sharply because of expectations that officials in both Japan and the United States may intervene in the market to prop up the Japanese currency’s value.
More swings could be ahead for financial markets in a week full of big tests.
The Federal Reserve will announce its latest move on interest rates on Wednesday. It’s been lowering its main interest rate and has indicated more cuts may be on the way in 2026 to help shore up the job market and give the economy a boost.
Most economists expect it to hold steady on Wednesday, in part because inflation remains stubbornly above the Fed’s 2% target and lower rates could worsen it. Whatever the Fed decides, comments from its chair, Jerome Powell, following the decision could sway stock and bond markets.
Several of Wall Street’s most influential stocks are also set to deliver their latest earnings reports this week. That includes Meta Platforms, Microsoft and Tesla on Wednesday and Apple on Thursday.
In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury eased to 4.21% from 4.24% late Friday.
In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed amid mostly modest movements in Europe following some sharper swings in Asia. Japan’s Nikkei 225 dropped 1.8% for one of the world’s bigger moves. A stronger yen could hurt Japanese exporters, and Toyota Motor fell 4.1%.
AP Business Writers Yuri Kageyama and Matt Ott contributed.
Trader William Lawrence works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Monday, Jan. 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
Specialist James Denaro works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Monday, Jan. 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
Trader Michael Capolino, left, and Specialist Thomas McArdle work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Monday, Jan. 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
Options traders Anthony Spina, second left, and Brian Garvey, right, work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
Specialist Anthony Matesic, left, and trader Edward Curran work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
Trader Daniel Krieger is framed by his computer monitors as he works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
A dealer walks past near the screens showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), right, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won at a dealing room of Hana Bank in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, Jan. 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
Specialist Douglas Johnson works at his post on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
A dealer walks past near the screens showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), right, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won at a dealing room of Hana Bank in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, Jan. 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
A dealer walks past near the screens showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), left, and the Korean Securities Dealers Automated Quotations (KOSDAQ) at a dealing room of Hana Bank in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, Jan. 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
A dealer walks past near the screens showing the foreign exchange rates at a dealing room of Hana Bank in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, Jan. 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
