Years of tenant complaints and lawsuits have followed the St. Louis-based developers behind Lux Living, Asprient Properties and STL CityWide.
But federal fraud charges looming over developer Sid Chakraverty, his brother, Vic Alston, and their accountant, Shijing “Poppy” Cao were abruptly dropped this summer.
Filed in 2024, the charges described a conspiracy worth millions of dollars that involved defrauding the City of St. Louis through its minority hiring program.
However, minority business programs subsequently came under fire from the Trump administration, which deems such programs unconstitutional. In August, U.S. Attorney Thomas Albus personally dismissed the charges against Chakraverty, Alston and Cao.
The case was among those discussed on Tuesday’s edition of the Legal Roundtable on St. Louis on the Air. The role of U.S. Attorney Thomas Albus has also raised questions about possible political influence over federal cases: Chakraverty is represented by attorney Brad Bondi, the brother of U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi.
“Fraud is fraud,” said Booker T. Shaw, a former justice on the Missouri Court of Appeals Eastern District and a partner at Thompson Coburn. “Perhaps going forward, some decision will be made ultimately that the program was unconstitutional. But as it stands and at the time they were charged, there was no question about the constitutionality of the program.”
Along with Shaw, the September edition of the Legal Roundtable featured Jim Wyrsch, a founding partner at the law firm Khazaeli Wyrsch, and Nicole Gorovsky, a former prosecutor and partner at the Clayton firm, Frankel, Rubin, Klein, Payne & Pudlowski.
To hear the full conversation with the expert attorneys of the Legal Roundtable, including their insights into Missouri’s redistricting push and a dispute over the rights of pro-Palestinian to participate in a school parade, listen to “St. Louis on the Air” on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube, or click the play button below.
“St. Louis on the Air” brings you the stories of St. Louis and the people who live, work and create in our region. The show is produced by Miya Norfleet, Emily Woodbury, Danny Wicentowski, Elaine Cha and Alex Heuer. The production intern is Darrious Varner. The audio engineer is Aaron Doerr.
