Bill Essayli is a Trump-appointed U.S. Attorney in California and he is investigating the billions upon billions of dollars the state has spent in an effort to combat homelessness.
California still has a massive homeless problem, despite all of this spending. There are also a lot of people who have made a ton of money supposedly fighting this problem which never goes away and only keeps growing.
All of this absolutely warrants an investigation.
Essayli announced today that there have already been two related arrests.
NBC News in Los Angeles reports:
2 LA men charged with fraud in misuse of public funds meant for combating homelessness
Two Los Angeles-area men faced federal charges in separate criminal cases as they are both accused of fraudulently acquiring public funds that were allocated to address homelessness and build affordable housing, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Thursday.
Cody Holmes of Beverly Hills was in custody as of Thursday after he allegedly used fake bank records to receive nearly $26 million from the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) for Shangri-La Industries LLC, for which he previously served as a CFO.
The money from Project Homekey was supposed to be used to build affordable housing in Thousand Oaks, but instead, Holmes, 31, spent the money to pay credit card bills and purchase good at luxury retailers, the DOJ alleged.
“Even though the developer received all the money from the state, the developer did not complete the construction of the Thousand Oaks project,” Acting U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said during a news conference Thursday. “Essentially, he stole the money.”
Watch the video below:
BREAKING: In a bombshell revelation, US Attorney Bill Essayli just exposed that California Democrat officials oversaw MASSIVE homelessness fund fraud
It has resulted in MILLIONS of dollars worth of fraudulent spending.
“Billions of California tax dollars intended to solve… pic.twitter.com/rIN9uMVJlF
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) October 16, 2025
In the tweet below, Essayli says:
California has spent billions of taxpayer dollars to combat its homelessness crisis with very little to show for it. Six months ago, I announced the Homelessness Fraud and Corruption Task Force. Today, we begin to hold people accountable by announcing two cases where more than $50 million of homelessness funding was fraudulently obtain.
Federal agents this morning arrested Cody Holmes, the former CFO of Shangri-La Industries, and a grand jury yesterday indicted real estate developer
Steven Taylor, both of whom are charged with fraud in separate cases. Holmes allegedly siphoned public funds for homelessness and used millions of dollars for his own use. Taylor is accused of lying to banks to fraudulently obtain loans, including a Cheviot Hills property he flipped and sold to a homeless housing developer for more than double the original purchase price.
California has spent billions of taxpayer dollars to combat its homelessness crisis with very little to show for it. Six months ago, I announced the Homelessness Fraud and Corruption Task Force. Today, we begin to hold people accountable by announcing two cases where more than… pic.twitter.com/jUFpLhBmsZ
— Acting U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli (@USAttyEssayli) October 16, 2025
He is obviously taking this issue very seriously. It is about time someone looked into this. People who are supposedly fighting homelessness should not be able to become wealthy while the problem only gets worse. It reeks of fraud.