By CHRISTOPHER WEBER

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.

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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.

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)

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.

Digging out from the weekend’s massive snow and ice storm could be hazardous to your heart.

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Pennsylvania health officials announced three snow-removal related deaths Sunday. All were between the ages of 60 to 84. The Lehigh County coroner’s office cautioned people to take breaks and avoid over-exerting themselves.

Shoveling snow is heavy, hard work — research has shown that doing it for even a short time can make the heart work as hard as it does during a major workout. Adding to that stress, the cold temperatures cause blood vessels, including those feeding the heart, to constrict. That raises blood pressure which in turn increases the risk of a heart attack, stroke or cardiac arrest, according to the American Heart Association.

Snow shoveling is especially risky for anyone with known heart disease or who’s already survived a heart attack, as well as older adults and people with risk factors including high blood pressure or cholesterol. People who think they’re healthy can get in trouble, too, with that combination of heavy exertion in cold weather – especially if they’re generally sedentary until a snowstorm comes along.

The heart association advises that if you have to shovel, go slow and try to push the snow instead of lifting and throwing it. It also urges people to learn common warning signs of a heart attack and to call 911 if they experience them.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

SALAMANCA, Mexico (AP) — Beer cans, candles and blood-stained clothing littered a soccer field in central Mexico on Monday, a day after gunmen killed 11 people and injured 12 others during a gathering after an amateur match.

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While authorities investigate the killings, Guanajuato state Gov. Libia Dennise García said Monday that “security in the region has been reinforced” with state and federal forces. She said on social media that the state “will act decisively to protect families, restore peace to the community, and bring those responsible to justice.”

The massacre took place in the municipality of Salamanca, in the state with the highest number of homicides in the country. The region has been wracked by intense violence linked to the territorial dispute between the local Santa Rosa de Lima cartel — a violent group primarily dedicated to fuel theft and trafficking — and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, CJNG.

Salamanca Mayor César Prieto — the only official to provide early details on Sunday — described the massacre as part of a “wave of violence” and appealed to President Claudia Sheinbaum for help.

It also comes a few months before the start of the FIFA World Cup, which Mexico is co-hosting with Canada and the United States, and as the government seeks to highlight its progress in security.

Sheinbaum didn’t address the events in Salamanca during her news briefing on Monday, deferring to the local prosecutor’s office, which has only confirmed an ongoing investigation.

Authorities have not offered any hypotheses regarding the possible motive for the attack.

Security analyst David Saucedo, who was based in Guanajuato for many years, suggests the attack was likely an “indiscriminate” act by the Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel.

According to Saucedo, the group may have targeted the public specifically to provoke a federal military surge into territory currently held by its rivals, the Jalisco Cartel — a move he says “undermines the image of security Mexico hopes to project on the eve of the World Cup.”

The Jalisco cartel is the fastest-growing criminal organization in Mexico. It was declared a terrorist organization by the Trump administration, which also targeted the Santa Rosa de Lima cartel.

Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america

By JOSH BOAK, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Monday he is increasing tariffs on South Korean goods because the country’s national assembly has yet to approve the trade framework announced last year.

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Trump said on social media that import taxes would be raised on autos, lumber and pharmaceutical drugs from South Korea with the rate on other goods going from 15% to 25%. The U.S. president previously imposed the tariffs by declaring an economic emergency and bypassing Congress, while South Korea needed legislative approval for the framework announced in July and affirmed during Trump’s October visit to the country.

“Our Trade Deals are very important to America. In each of these Deals, we have acted swiftly to reduce our TARIFFS in line with the Transaction agreed to,” Trump said. “We, of course, expect our Trading Partners to do the same.”

The threat was a reminder that the tariff drama unleashed last year by Trump is likely to be repeated again and again this year. The global economy and U.S. voters might find the world’s trade structure constantly being subject to disruption and new negotiations as Trump has already sought to levy tariffs in order to bend other nations to his will.

Trump has in the past tied his tariffs to commitments by South Korea to invest $350 billion in the U.S. economy over several years, including efforts to revitalize American shipyards. But the Trump administration’s relations with South Korea have at times been rocky with the raid last year by immigration officials at a Hyundai manufacturing site in Georgia that caused 475 people to be detained.

Monday’s announcement of new tariffs fits a pattern in which Trump plans to continue to deploy tariffs, possibly to the detriment of relations with other countries.

Just last week, the president threatened tariffs on eight European nations unless the U.S. gained control of Greenland, only to pull back on his ultimatum after meetings at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Trump on Saturday said he would put a 100% tax on goods from Canada if it followed through with plans to bolster trade with China.

Trump has bragged about his trade frameworks as drawing in new investment to the U.S., yet many of his heavily hyped deals have yet to be finalized. The European Parliament has yet to approve a trade deal pushed by Trump that would put a 15% tax on the majority of goods made by the EU’s 27 member states.

The United States is poised this year to renegotiate its amended 2020 trade pact with Canada and Mexico. There are also ongoing Section 232 investigations under the 1962 Trade Expansion Act, as well as an upcoming Supreme Court decision on whether Trump exceeded his authority by declaring tariffs under the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act.