Matthew Whitaker, former Chief of Staff to Jeff Sessions at the Department of Justice.

While in private business, acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker walked away from a taxpayer-subsidized apartment-rehabilitation project in Iowa after years of cost overruns, delays and other problems.

That's according to public records on the Des Moines project, which prompted the city to terminate an affordable housing loan Whitaker's company had been awarded. Another lender began foreclosure proceedings after he defaulted on a separate loan for nearly $700,000.

Several contractors went unpaid, and a process server for one contractor could not even find Whitaker or his company to serve him with a lawsuit.

Whitaker was appointed last week by President Donald Trump to the nation's top law enforcement job. The former federal prosecutor has been a Republican Party loyalist and a critic of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation.