(The Center Square) – A recent whistleblower’s allegations about the Department of Commerce’s Community Reinvestment Program has raised questions not only about the level of scrutiny over such programs, but how state agencies investigate accusations when they’re brought forth.
Late last month, real estate agent Corey Orvold argued in statements to The Center Square that the program was used by the Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle to personally enrich relatives of those charged with distributing the funds. ULMS has denied any wrongdoing.
In a statement to The Center Square, Commerce Media Relations Manager Amelia Lamb wrote that the state agency “takes all complaints and allegations of misconduct very seriously. We are reviewing program records and will take appropriate action should malfeasance be discovered.”
However, emails obtained by The Center Square reveal that Orvold has raised issues with the program going as far back as March, when she scheduled an interview with Commerce officials overseeing the program.
“We were just saying that the Urban League [of Metropolitan Seattle] is telling us they’re out of funds, yet we’re being told urban league is still hosting [CRP] events,” she told The Center Square.
In a follow-up email to Commerce, Orvold discussed an individual applying for mortgage assistance through CRP with ULMS, but experienced difficulty getting it approved and was told he didn’t qualify despite providing the information requested.
While Commerce has pointed out that ULMS’s contract with Commerce specifically prohibits distributing funds to relatives per a conflict of interest provision, Homeownership Capital Programs Supervisor Angela Snow wrote in a March 26 email that “it is ultimately on Urban League to determine who does and does not qualify for their debt remediation funding. We have asked for an update on whether or not they have processed his (applicant’s) debt paydown request but have not heard back.”
Although Commerce Director Joe Nguyễn was cc’d on many of Orvold’s emails, none of the records obtained by The Center Square show a response to Orvold; she asserts he never responded.
Nevertheless, Rep. Andrew Rep. Andrew Barksis, R-Lacey, told The Center Square that he anticipates Nguyễn will take a “hard look” at the allegations. He noted one of the challenges for the state Legislature is they lack the same ability as Congress to conduct hearings.
“There needs to be broad investigation,” he said. “There needs to be established oversight at the legislative level. If this(CRP) is going to be continued and continued to be funded, then it needs to have a different process by which it’s done. It’s not working.”
The Center Square reached out to Commerce with various questions regarding any internal vetting process or procedure to determine whether or not funding is being misused when the nonprofits report their expenditures.
Additionally, The Center Square inquired as to the standard process for examining allegations made to Commerce about potential misuse of funds, along with any recent examples of where Commerce discovered a nonprofit was misusing funds and actions taken.
Lamb wrote in an email that Nguyễn was the only person capable of discussing agency oversight, but was currently out of the country. The Center Square has requested an interview with Nguyễn upon his return.
Recent performance audits of Commerce programs by the State Auditor’s Office has noted a lack of sufficient oversight over spending. In a November 2024 performance audit of the Digital Navigator Program, SAO found Commerce “did not ensure Digital Navigators met all minimum and mandatory requirements to participate in the program.” The audit recommended Commerce provide “funding only to proposers who meet all required minimum and mandatory requirements.”
Another performance audit that year by SAO found that Commerce “did not comply with requirements over the Behavioral Health Community Capacity Grant to ensure it provided funding only to qualified applicants and that payments were allowable and supported.”
However, Orvold said she also tried warning SAO about the misuse of CRP funds. According to emails obtained by The Center Square, she contacted Director of State Audit and Special Investigations Sadie Armijo via email on April 10, alleging that ULMS was “been taking clients from other lenders and realty people and forcing them to use their people in order to receive the $50,000. The family members of the staff are the preferred professionals.”
According to a letter obtained by The Center Square, the next day Special Investigation Program Manager Erin Anderson wrote to Orvold, telling her state law “only permits our Office to consider investigating whistleblower complaints filed by current state employees. Based upon your job description, you are not a current state employee and therefore, we are unable to open an investigation.”
The SAO has a hotline for private citizens to report potential “suspected misuse of government property or waste of taxpayer money.”
The Center Square reached out to SAO to determine whether Orvold’s allegations should have been sent to them through this hotline and if there is any process for SAO to notify officials with a specific state agency so it might be able to investigate.
In an email, SAO Director of Communications Kathleen Cooper said its website has a page people can go to to report potential misuse of funds.
“The whistleblower program we manage is only for state employees as required by state law,” she wrote. “Even if we can’t review a concern through the whistleblower program, we generally consider the information when planning a future audit if applicable.”
