LEWISTON — Federal inspectors Friday seized public records at City Hall related to an investigation into allegations that a prominent Twin Cities developer misused federal housing money.

On Thursday, the Sun Journal reported that Travis Soule, 45, of New Gloucester may have committed fraud when he received federal money from the U.S. Housing and Urban Development to replace heating systems in three Pine Street apartment buildings by allegedly forging the heating contractor’s name to endorse at least two checks totaling $50,000.

The Sun Journal filed a request for access to the city’s records under the Freedom of Access Act, and while city officials confirmed details of the investigation in a meeting with a Sun Journal reporter and editor on Tuesday, declined to release documents at that time.

Consulting with the city’s attorney, Regan Hornney of Braunn & Issacson, City Administrator Jim Bennett agreed Friday morning to allow the Sun Journal access to the requested documents.

Bennett was in the process of drafting a letter to HUD informing the agency it intended to comply with the newspaper’s request, when a HUD agent from the Inspector General’s Office in Manchester, N.H., served Bennett with an administrative subpoena, seizing all records relating to the program, including copies Bennett said he directed city staff to make that should remain at City Hall for accounting and audit purposes.

He said he was aware on Thursday afternoon that an agent from the N.H. office could be arriving sometime Monday to retrieve the original documents, but didn’t expect the sweeping subpoena Friday.

For more, see tomorrow’s Sun Journal.