Federal authorities arrested a Beverly Hills man and charged a Brentwood developer in separate cases involving fraud in public homelessness funds, officials announced today.
Cody Holmes, 31, former chief financial officer of downtown Los Angeles affordable housing developer Shangri-La Industries LLC, was arrested on mail fraud charges. Steven Taylor, 44, faces bank fraud, identity theft and money laundering charges related to his property-flipping business.
"Accountability for the misuse of billions of tax dollars intended to combat homeless starts today," said Acting U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli. "The two criminal cases announced is only the tip of the iceberg."
Holmes allegedly submitted fake bank records to the California Department of Housing and Community Development showing approximately $160 million supposedly controlled by Shangri-La to prove the company could fulfill homeless housing projects. The accounts did not exist, according to court documents.
HCD paid approximately $25.9 million in October 2022 for a state "Homekey" project in Thousand Oaks, following previous payments for homeless housing projects in Redlands and King City.
More than $2.2 million was transferred from a Shangri-La account to a Holmes-controlled account in late 2022, with over $2 million subsequently paid toward American Express cards for luxury purchases, authorities said.
Taylor used fake bank statements and false cash representations from August 2019 to July 2025 to obtain loans for his real estate business, acquiring properties in Silver Lake, Los Feliz, Westlake, Del Rey, Pico-Union and Cheviot Hills.
In one transaction, Taylor purchased a Cheviot Hills property for $11.2 million using fraudulent documents, then sold it to a homeless housing developer for $27.3 million using public funds from Los Angeles and California.
Taylor maintained fraudulent lines of credit totaling approximately $4 million from multiple lenders while concealing existing debts, including forging an email to hide an active $1 million credit line.
Holmes faces up to 20 years in federal prison on mail fraud charges. Taylor faces up to 30 years per bank fraud count, 10 years for money laundering and a mandatory two-year sentence for aggravated identity theft.
The FBI and IRS Criminal Investigation investigated both cases as part of the Homelessness Fraud & Corruption Task Force.
Edited by SMDP Staff