(The Center Square) – The whistleblower at the center of a scandal concerning the Tacoma Urban League has been notified by the office of Washington Attorney General Nick Brown that they have closed her case.
Corey Orvold, a real estate managing broker and former Tacoma Urban League volunteer, revealed alleged self-dealing within TUL nearly two years ago.
As reported by The Center Square, Orvold raised serious allegations against Washington state’s Community Reinvestment Program which, among other things, aims to support homeownership for minorities by providing grants and funding to programs that assist low-income households.
Late last month, Orvold was contacted by the state attorney general’s office requesting a phone call to discuss her case. In that call she was informed the office was closing the inquiry.
“I’m told that the attorney general’s office for the state of Washington does not have the ability to investigate taxpayer donations to charities. So, after a so-called year of investigating, the Washington State Attorney General’s Office, Consumer Protection Division has closed their investigation, because it was taxpayer money,” said Orvold.
Investigation, inquiries
After investigating publicly available information over several months in 2025, Orvold suggested the program had become a personal enrichment for those charged with distributing the funds.
CRP was created by majority-party Democrats in 2022 and initially given $200 million in taxpayer funds to lift up communities they said were disproportionately harmed by the war on drugs and housing discrimination policies of the past.
Minority communities who may not otherwise be able to come up with a down payment for a home, or obtain a loan to open a business, can apply for grants, provided by the Department of Commerce and funneled to the Tacoma Urban League for distribution.
After the Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle came under federal and state scrutiny in 2025, Orvold, who was at the time a TUL volunteer started asking questions of leadership in Tacoma to ensure similar self-dealing wasn’t going on.
What Orvold found was that some TUL members were allegedly providing grants and loans to their own inner circle, including family members, and that’s when she stepped down from the organization and asked Washington Attorney General Nick Brown to investigate, providing the office with about a dozen emailed links to documents she compiled, demonstrating the alleged self-dealing.
She offered more, but Orvold said the office told her they had enough information and didn’t need to meet with her in person.
For months, Orvold heard nothing until October 2025 when media inquiries, including those from The Center Square, prompted Brown’s office to open an inquiry.
She questioned how it could take a year for the office to dismiss her complaint.
“Every article, every report, has said that this is taxpayer money. Common sense is that this was taxpayer money. They were actually patting themselves on the back about how thorough an investigation they did, only to ultimately say they didn’t have the ability to actually take action,” said Orvold.
The Center Square reached out with several questions to the attorney general’s office, and received an email exchange between the office and Orvold as a response.
Via email, Brown’s office explained to Orvold that the Consumer Protection Division of the AG does not investigate alleged taxpayer fraud, sharing that if the alleged abuse involved charitable contributions, not taxpayer money, they would investigate.
“I can only address what I have direct knowledge of, which is the investigation conducted by the Consumer Protection Division. I cannot comment on whether any other subdivision of the state conducted (or is conducting) an investigation into the issues you brought to our attention,” wrote Joshua Studor, an assistant AG via email to Orvold and shared with The Center Square.
“I cannot confirm or deny that any referrals to any other AGO division or state agency occurred or will occur. I would like to reiterate our thanks for bringing these issues to our attention; I am sorry the result of our investigation is frustrating to you,” wrote Studor in the email to Orvold.
Senator Keith Goehner, R-Dryden, backed a bill during the 2026 legislative session in response to Orvold’s discovery. SB 6167 sought to prevent multiple different grants or funding streams going to the same developer or individual.
Majority Democrats did not give the bill a public hearing.
“I think the bigger issue we have right now is whether the attorney general takes his job seriously, as far as being responsible to the public and the citizens of Washington state. And if they’re not willing to look into something as blatant as this, the only recourse you have is to hold him accountable in an election,” said Goehner during a Nov. 5 phone call with The Center Square.
Goehner said he can’t believe there is nothing in state statue that allows the state AG to look into taxpayer fraud, brought to their attention by a citizen.
“I’m totally blown away by the fact that they don’t want to even look into it. I mean, they’re just very dismissive. She’s provided good documentation that is a good basis for looking into where this money has gone,” said Goehner.
“I mean that just seems kind of the antithesis of what you should be doing is making sure the taxpayers’ dollars are being spent appropriately.”
Orvold told The Center Square she isn’t convinced the AG’s office even took a serious look at the documentation she provided.
“Anybody with Google access can find these houses. Anybody with Google access can figure out where these houses are, and how much money people got. Who the real estate brokers were and who the lenders were. This is not anything that requires any sort of deep dive. The fraud is public record…I have binders full of evidence. The AG’s office didn’t want to meet with me.”
Orvold said she is now hoping to get the Pierce County Prosecutors Office to pay attention to the case and potentially recommend that the AG launch an investigation.
Under Washington law, the Attorney General’s Office does not have original criminal jurisdiction and generally does not initiate criminal investigations on its own. However, receiving a written request from an elected county prosecutor provides the office concurrent authority to investigate and prosecute the crime.