Bill Essayli, the newly appointed American lawyer for Los Angeles and the surrounding regions, announced Tuesday the formation of a criminal working group to investigate potential fraud and corruption involving local homeless funds, saying that there will be arrests if federal laws had been raped.
The American lawyer’s office in Los Angeles particularly targeted the County of Los Angeles in a press release announcing the working group, citing millions of dollars in federal funds that have been allocated to tackle homelessness and a recent audit ordered by the court which found major faults in the services of the homeless.
“Taxpayers deserve responses where and how their harshly earned money has been spent. If state officials and local cannot provide appropriate surveillance and responsibility, we will do it for them,” said Essayli in his ad.
The working group on the fraud and corruption of the homeless “will investigate crimes linked to the diversion of federal taxes intended to mitigate homelessness” in the California central district, which covers around 20 million people in seven counties.
In addition to examining the federal, state and local programs that receive federal subsidies and funding, the working group “will also investigate fraud regimes involving the theft of private donations intended to provide support and services to the population of the homeless”, according to the office of the American lawyer.
Individuals without housing take care of their tents at Skid Row last month. An audit ordered by the court revealed a profound lack of financial surveillance in the expenditure on the roaming of Los Angeles.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
According to figures for last year, the County of Los Angeles has more than 75,000 inhabitants, including more than 45,000 people within the limits of the city of Los Angeles among the other six counties in the district, the homeless population exceeds 20,000, according to the Essayli office.
The supervisor of the County of Kathryn Barger said that she had welcomed the creation of the working group, calling the responsibility of the homeless who spends “late for a long time”.
“This action aligns with the stages that the county has just taken following a scathing audit of Lahsa contracts, and it sends a clear message: public funds intended to serve our most vulnerable must be managed with transparency and integrity,” said Barger. “I believe that this working group will add an essential layer of surveillance which will help restore public confidence and guarantee that resources really reach those who need it.”
The supervisor of the County of the Kathryn Barger said that she had praised the working group.
(Juliana Yamada / Los Angeles Times)
The working group will be made up of federal prosecutors of major fraud, public corruption and civil rights and civil fraud sections of the civil division, according to the office of the American prosecutor. The FBI, the US Ministry of Housing and Urban Development of the Inspector General and the IRS Criminal Investigation Department will also help you.
Essayli’s announcement occurs a week after the County Supervisors’ Council of Los Angeles voted to withdraw more than $ 300 million from the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, a City Comtes Agency that oversees contracts for a range of homeless services.
The supervisors have taken this stage following two scathing audits which identified lax accounting procedures and poor financial surveillance at the authority of the homeless, also known as Lahsa. One of these reports, commanded by the judge of the American district court, David O. Carter, concluded that low surveillance had created the potential for fraud and waste.
Carter, during a recent audience, said that Lahsa had promised “meaningless” promises to improve her operations.
“If they were going to do it, they should have done it, or they should have given you a roadmap … how they are going to do it,” he said.
The city of Los Angeles, which provides 35% of Lahsa funds, explored its own withdrawal from this agency.
Friday, the VA Lecia Adams Kellum announced that it will resign as a senior manager of Lahsa, citing the county’s decision to finance – and potentially hundreds of employees – from her agency.
In recent weeks, Adams Kellum has tried to defend the work of his agency, stressing that he reported a 5% reduction in street roaming in the county and a drop of more than 10% in the city of last year.
Adams Kellum said his agency planned to report another reduction next year. Despite these insurances, she and her agency have been the subject of lacerated criticism of Carter, the federal judge.
California Daily Newspapers
