In March 2025, claims (archived) circulated that the FBI was trying to "criminalize" Habitat for Humanity, a nonprofit organization working to increase access to affordable housing, for receiving climate grants from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
An early version of the claim appeared on the left wing political Facebook page Occupy Democrats:
BREAKING: Donald Trump's FBI shreds the rule of law by moving to criminalize Habitat for Humanity and other groups for receiving EPA grants during the Biden administration.
This is a whole new level of evil…
Claims also appeared elsewhere on Facebook (archived), X (archived), Threads (archived) and Bluesky (archived). Snopes readers messaged asking us to look into the claim.
The claims stemmed from a court filing by Citibank, the financial institution entrusted with holding money for recipients of the EPA's Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, a $27 billion fund for "greenhouse gas- and air pollution-reducing projects" across the U.S. Though the case was not brought by Habitat for Humanity, Citibank's court filings revealed the nonprofit's involvement.
Climate United Fund, one of the fund's recipients, sued Citibank on March 8, 2025, because it was unable to access its funds held by Citibank after Feb. 18. Filings by Citibank revealed that, on Feb. 17, the FBI asked Citibank to freeze a number of accounts, all belonging to recipients of the fund due to "credible information received by the Federal Bureau of Investigation" that the accounts were involved in possible fraud and wire fraud activities.
The FBI also named a number of entities, including Habitat for Humanity and at least four other sub-awardees of funds, whose accounts Citibank should also freeze.
The freeze followed a commitment by EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin to claw back Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund money, a move that has faced political and legal pushback.
Ongoing investigations by the FBI and Justice Department will review the fund and, consequently, whether Habitat for Humanity or any other grant recipient partook in a criminal activity by receiving the EPA grant.
Timeline of grant termination, lawsuit
Though Habitat for Humanity was not directly involved in Climate United Fund's lawsuit, the outcomes for both organizations will likely be dictated by the case's result and the FBI and DOJ investigations.
According to an exhibit filed by Citibank on March 12, a Feb. 17 email signed by two FBI agents and addressed to Citibank asked the bank to freeze accounts, including those belonging to Habitat for Humanity, with the reasoning:
This recommendation is being made following credible information received by the Federal Bureau of Investigation that the above account(s) has been involved in possible criminal violations, including 18 § U.S.C. 371 (Conspiracy to defraud the United States) and 18 § U.S.C. 1343 (Wire fraud).
The listed accounts included the names of all the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund recipients and several sub-awardees such as Habitat for Humanity.
The EPA said in a news release on March 3 that it had referred "the well documented and concerning matter of financial mismanagement, conflicts of interest, and oversight failures with the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund" to the DOJ and FBI.
Then, on March 4, the U.S. Treasury instructed Citibank to "not to disperse funds from any of the GGRF accounts prior to the end of the day Sunday, March 9, 2025."
Also on March 4, a lawyer representing Climate United Fund wrote to the EPA, asking it to reverse or stay any decisions that led to the Climate United Fund being unable to access the funds.
Climate United Fund sued Citibank, the EPA and Lee Zeldin on March 8, requesting that the court order Citibank to pay out GGRF funds, arguing Citibank was contractually obligated to do so.
The EPA terminated grant agreements under the National Clean Investment Fund and Clean Communities Investment Accelerator, both dispersed from the fund, on March 11.
On March 14, Democratic members of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works published a letter criticizing Zeldin's termination of the fund, calling it an illegal attempt "to unilaterally claw back Congressionally appropriated and contractually obligated funding."
The members argued that Zeldin's termination of the funding had not adhered to terms laid out in three-party agreements (called account control agreements) between grant recipients, the EPA and Citibank about when a grant could be terminated and what should happen to the money in the grant recipient's account in that case.
A hearing in the Climate United Fund v. Citibank case was scheduled for March 17.
Snopes previously reported on the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund grant for Power Forward Communities and whether former Democratic Rep. Stacey Abrams was connected to the initiative.