No, the FBI didn’t arrest the owner of a company purportedly responsible for the Los Angeles fires

The causes of three fires in the Los Angeles area — the Palisades, Eaton and Hurst fires — were all still under investigation as of Jan. 14, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. 

But videos circulating on social media claim that the FBI has apprehended a culprit behind the wildfires, which have burned tens of thousands of acres, destroyed thousands of homes, and killed at least two dozen people with others still missing. 

"Urgent: The FBI has arrested the owner of the company responsible for the fires in Los Angeles," reads text in the video, which includes images of two people in jackets with backward yellow FBI letters flanking a man in handcuffs. 

"The FBI has arrested the owner of the company responsible for the fires in Los Angeles," a narrator in the video says. "What initially seemed like another natural disaster is taking an unexpected turn. In recent days, Los Angeles has been ravaged by devastating fires that destroyed thousands of hectares of land, displaced families and caused incalculable damage. However the truth is now coming to light and it is even worse than imagined. A security camera captured the exact moment employees of a company identified as Westland Developments started the fires. Sources close to the investigation revealed that the company’s owner Richard Graves had multimillion dollar interest in the devastated lands, planning to convert them into a massive real estate project. The footage shows something so shocking it left FBI agents speechless. According to reports, Graves used methods that mimicked natural fires, making it difficult to identify his criminal actions. Experts warn this could be just the tip of the iceberg. There are indications there are other companies that might be involved in a larger conspiracy to profit from the destruction of protected areas."

The narrator alludes to "documents seized by the FBI," and the video shows a photo of someone in a jacket with the letters FBI handing a cardboard box to someone in a black mask.

Instagram posts sharing this video Jan. 11 were flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and Threads.)

FBI spokesperson Laura Eimiller told PolitiFact, "I’m not aware of any arrests made in this regard." 

The Los Angeles Fire Department and the Los Angeles County Fire Department didn’t immediately respond to PolitiFact’s questions about the video. 

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stated on January 8, 2025 in social media posts

Image shows the Hollywood sign was on fire as of Jan. 8.

We looked for but found no evidence that the video’s claims are authentic. 

There are no news reports of someone named Richard Graves getting arrested in connection with the wildfires, much less the owner of a company called Westland Developments. 

We also found no evidence of such a company with that owner who has a stake in the scorched land.  

A Canadian "residential and commercial renovation contractor and custom home builder" called Westland Developments Ltd. operates in British Columbia, according to its website, while California-based Westland Development Group is a property management company. 

Neither company immediately responded to PolitiFact’s questions about the post, but we found no evidence of a connection between them and the claims. 

Reverse-image searches for the purported photo showing FBI agents arresting Graves yielded only another unsourced social media post. We found yet another Instagram post with a video claiming to show FBI agents supposedly raiding Graves’ house, but the person detained in that video appeared to be different from the handcuffed man in the Instagram post. 

We also found no credible original sources for the purported photo of the documents "seized by the FBI." 

We rate claims that the FBI arrested the owner of a company responsible for the Los Angeles area wildfires False.