Federal officials announced on Friday they arrested the head of a homelessness charity based in Hyde Park on allegations of wire fraud. According to officials, 42-year-old Alexander Soofer fraudulently obtained $23 million in public dollars meant to house and feed 600 homeless people. Soofer allegedly used at least $10 million of the money to buy homes, designer items and fund his kids’ private school educations. He faces up to 20 years in federal prison if convicted.
Details of the case: Soofer is the executive director of Abundant Blessings, which was founded in 2018 to “end homelessness,” according to a profile of the charity on LinkedIn. Five million dollars came directly from the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, and the remaining $17 million came from a downtown L.A. nonprofit, which according to the complaint, “received its funding from LAHSA.” Officials allege that among other things, Soofer used public funds to buy a $7 million home in Westwood, nearly half-a-million-dollar vacation home in Greece, $125,000 Range Rover and thousands in items from Hermes and Chanel.
Local Investigations: LAHSA and the L.A. City Controller’s Office investigated Soofer. Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said Friday that Soofer lied to the auditors from both organizations and provided them fake documents. LAHSA terminated its contracts with Abundant Blessings following its investigation and referred the case to the DA’s office, the federal complaint says…