The White House anti-fraud task force and the Department of Housing and Urban Development on Monday announced that they have suspended the Virgin Islands' Housing Finance Authority's ability to receive federal funding amid an investigation into potential fraud.

The White House task force claimed the last 10 years of audits at the Virgin Islands office allegedly revealed "massive corruption, mismanagement, and fraud," and that its former Chief Operating Officer is in federal prison for fraud and money laundering.

The task force said its investigation has found that VIHFA received nearly $2 billion in federal funding for disaster recovery after hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017, but has only spent less than a third of that money.

Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner said the small amount that has been spent was allegedly used on administrative kickbacks instead of recovering families.

Turner also noted that VIFHA has only completed 2% of its single-family rental rehabilitation projects, 16% of its homeowner rehabilitation projects and 19% of its multi-family rental projects.

"VIHFA’s lack of accountability has already cost Virgin Islanders roughly $1.3 BILLION in assistance Congress intended them to have," Turner said in a series of posts on X. "Taxpayer dollars cannot keep funding an agency that turns disaster recovery into a pattern of fraud, delay, and false statements. HUD’s suspension of VIHFA protects that duty and the residents still waiting 9 years later."

Misty Severi is a news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.