By Mike Harris Thursday, October 16th, 2025

The CFO of an affordable housing developer was arrested Oct. 16 for alleged mail fraud in connection with state grant funds for homeless housing in Thousand Oaks.

Cody Holmes, 31, of Beverly Hills, was charged by the U.S. Attorney’s Office and faces up to 20 years in federal prison if convicted.

“We are pleased to see those accused of crimes that affected our ability to deliver housing to some of our most vulnerable being brought to justice,” Thousand Oaks City Manager Drew Powers said in a statement.

According to an affidavit filed with the criminal complaint, in October 2022, the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) paid about $25.9 million in grant money to Shangri-La Industries, a Los Angeles-based developer of affordable housing.

The funds were for a state homelessness project called “Homekey.”

The funds were sent with the provision that the money be used to purchase, construct, and operate homeless housing in Thousand Oaks, prosecutors said.

The payments followed many millions of dollars HCD had already paid to Shangri-La to buy, build, and operate housing for the homeless in Redlands, King City, and other California cities, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Prosecutors alleged that as Shangri-La’s CFO, Holmes knowingly submitted fake bank records to HCD that purportedly showed that Shangri-La and its affiliates supposedly controlled about $160 million.

The records were allegedly submitted to falsely demonstrate  that Shangri-La had the capacity to fulfill the homeless housing projects, including the one in Thousand Oaks, for which it had coapplied for grants from HCD, prosecutors charged.

In fact, the bank accounts Shangri-La and Holmes said contained these funds did not exist, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Holmes and Shangri-La also allegedly presented to HCD balance sheets falsely representing that Shangri-La-affiliated entities held millions of dollars in cash that these entities did not actually have in their known accounts.

Holmes and Shangri-La allegedly submitted the fake bank statements and false balance sheets so that HCD would release grant money to Shangri-La, prosecutors said.

After the documents were given to HCD, the agency did indeed pay millions of dollars more in grant funds to Shangri-La, including for the Thousand Oaks project, prosecutors charged.

Some of the Homekey money paid to Shangri-La was allegedly used to pay credit card bills for American Express accounts associated with Holmes, according to court documents.

In November and December of 2022, more than $2.2 million was allegedly transferred from a Shangri-La account to a Holmes-controlled account.

From November 2022 to May 2023, more than $2 million was purportedly paid towards American Express cards, prosecutors said. 

The charges on the credit card accounts included purchases at well-known luxury retailers, according to court papers.

Law enforcement believes these payments were made at least in part for Holmes’s benefit.