Former St. Louis Aldermen Brandon Bosley will go on trial in federal court next week for allegedly trying to defraud an insurance company.
Bosley told U.S. District Judge Henry Autrey on Thursday that he was not interested in accepting a deal offered by federal prosecutors to plead guilty to four counts of wire fraud. In exchange, prosecutors would have dropped a fifth false statements charge. They had not offered a deal on sentencing.
The U.S. attorney’s office originally charged Bosley with three counts of wire fraud in 2023 and added the additional charges in 2024.
Prosecutors say that in March 2021, Bosley purchased a 2010 Toyota Prius from a local business owner for far less than market value. About five months later, a driver struck the Prius when it was parked outside Bosley’s aldermanic headquarters. The other driver’s insurance company, Missouri Farm Bureau Insurance, eventually contacted Bosley regarding the crash.
Prosecutors allege that Bosley asked the business owner, identified as John Doe in the indictment, to inflate the cost of the repairs to the vehicle so it would appear totaled.
“Of course, you know their whole business is based on trying to maintain as many dollars as they can,” Bosley allegedly told John Doe, according to excerpts of a conversation in the indictment. “F*** that insurance company. I don’t give two s***ts about ' em. I'm not bothered by hitting them with as much as we can. I told them I'm an elected official. "
After the insurance company raised questions about the labor cost estimates, Bosley and John Doe allegedly lowered the estimate to a still-inflated amount.
The insurance company later paid out nearly $8,000, but Bosley first had to register the car in order to receive the check; that happened more than a year after the purchase. He later authorized John Doe to buy the car back at auction for $2,000 and make the needed repairs.
Language in the indictment indicates that John Doe was Mohammed Almuttan, who was also at the center of a bribery scandal that toppled three of Bosley’s former colleagues – Lewis Reed, Jeffrey Boyd and John Collins-Muhammad.
