A former St. Louis alderman has been found guilty of insurance fraud for inflating the cost of repairs to a vehicle damaged in an accident.
A federal jury deliberated for about eight hours over the course of two days before issuing its verdict Friday in the case against Brandon Bosley. He’ll be sentenced for the four felonies at a later date.
In 2021, Bosley purchased a Toyota Prius from Mohammed Almuttan, a local business owner, for far less than the market value. About five months later, a driver struck the Prius when it was parked outside Bosley’s ward office. The other driver’s insurance company, Missouri Farm Bureau Insurance, eventually contacted Bosley regarding the crash.
Bosley went to Almuttan and asked for him to inflate the cost of repairing the vehicle so it could be declared a total loss. After the company raised questions about the estimates for labor costs, Bosley and Almuttan lowered the estimate to a still-inflated amount.
The insurance company later paid out nearly $8,000.
Almuttan was facing his own federal charges at the time and cooperated with prosecutors to reduce his sentence. He was also a central figure in a bribery scandal that brought down three of Bosley’s former aldermanic colleagues and a former staffer to two St. Louis County officials.
Bosley is scheduled to go to trial in state court in early February for an unrelated misdemeanor. He is accused of filing a false police report in December 2022.
