L.A. Homelessness Nonprofit Exec Charged With Skimming Millions To Finance Bingo Hall

Three people working for Los Angeles–area homeless nonprofits have been arrested and charged with wire fraud and money laundering for allegedly siphoning millions of taxpayer dollars to fund their lavish lifestyles, and in one case to open up a nightclub and bingo hall.Michael Young, founder of the Culver City–based homeless services nonprofit Home at Last, was charged with wire fraud in connection with an alleged multiyear scheme to defraud taxpayers by siphoning $12 million in funds from the nonprofit into his personal coffers.Young allegedly spent around $1 million of the funds on an upscale R&B and jazz nightclub in Inglewood called Six Seven Five Lounge and an adjacent bingo hall called House Bingo, which he claimed was run as a nonprofit to raise money for "housing solutions." Young was an established player in the L.A. homeless services space, and over the decade or so he was operating, he received $118 million from Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, the city of Los Angeles, the county of Los Angeles, and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. While some of those funds made their way into legitimate nonprofit activities, prosecutors say Young diverte...