The Los Angeles home of former Miami-Dade County Public Schools Superintendent Alberto Carvalho was searched by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on Wednesday.
Carvalho is currently the superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District, which the FBI also searched on Wednesday.
Federal officials in Los Angeles served the warrants as part of an ongoing investigation, according to a person familiar with the investigation who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss the probe.Â
The nature of the investigation and what allegations were being examined was not immediately clear.
Ciaran McEvoy, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles, confirmed that court-authorized searches were underway Wednesday.
The district and the superintendent’s office did not immediately respond to emails and a voicemail requesting comment.
TV news footage showed agents in FBI shirts and jackets outside Superintendent Alberto Carvalho’s modest home in the San Pedro neighborhood about 20 miles south of downtown LA. There was no visible sign of agents outside the district headquarters as of mid-morning.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass’s office said it had no information about the search and noted the district operates independently of city government.
The F.B.I. tells CBS News Miami that they also searched another home in Southwest Ranches in Broward County that was tied to this investigation, and have since left the property.
The sprawling Los Angeles Unified School District is the nation’s second largest, with more than 500,000 students and covering more than two dozen cities.
Carvalho has been its superintendent since February 2022.Â
Before coming to Los Angeles, Carvalho oversaw Miami-Dade County Public Schools, Florida‘s largest school district, from 2008 to 2021, when he was credited with improving graduation rates and academic performance.
Carvalho has been critical of the federal government’s immigration crackdown.
While authorities have not officially said what this investigation is about or what was taken from Carvalho’s home, law enforcement sources say the probe could be related to fraud.
CBS News Miami spoke with a family member at the Miami Shores home where Carvalho and his wife lived until 4 years ago and he said he did not want to comment about this case. Records show Carvalho and his wife still own the home.
Neighbors in Los Angeles told CBS News Miami that there was a great deal of law enforcement activity.
One unidentified neighbor said, “It started in the middle of the night. They put the siren on full blast for at least 30 seconds, and they woke everyone up. I was looking out the window and saw a guy in Camo with a rifle pointing at him. They have a chauffeur that takes him to work. It is not like it has any violent history or anything bad that’s going on.”
Another unidentified neighbor said, “I looked down the street and saw all the helicopters, and I heard about it on the news. They can’t say anything about it for a while.”
CBS News Miami reached out to Carvalho for more information, but has not yet heard back.