ST. LOUIS — Three St. Louis construction businessmen face federal fraud charges for allegedly deceiving the city’s Minority and Women Owned Business Enterprise program. Sidarth Chakraverty, Victor Alston, and Shijing Cao are accused of conspiring to obtain millions in tax incentives.
The indictment alleges that Chakraverty and Alston, operators of Big Sur Construction LLC and LuxLiving LLC, along with their accountant Cao, misrepresented minority and women-owned business participation in two major apartment projects: Chelsea and SoHo. Prosecutors claim they falsified reports, issued fake checks, and inflated participation figures to meet city requirements.
For the Chelsea project, the defendants allegedly claimed $272,393 in false minority business participation, leading to over $2 million in tax benefits. The SoHo project received $1 million in tax exemptions, but a suspected $7 million property tax break was withheld due to concerns about their claims.
The scheme reportedly involved creating the illusion of payments to minority-owned businesses and attempting to recruit some to participate in false reporting. The St. Louis Development Corporation, overseeing the program, grew suspicious during the projects.
Each defendant faces one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and eleven counts of wire fraud. If convicted, they could face up to 20 years in prison and $250,000 in fines per charge. The U.S. Attorney’s Office is now prosecuting the case after the FBI looked into it.
