Lux Living owners indicted on minority hiring fraud charges
ST. LOUIS — The brothers behind one of the city's most prolific apartment developers were indicted Friday on fraud charges related to the city's minority hiring program.
The indictment accuses Vic Alston and Sid Chakraverty — along with their accountant, Poppy Cao — of falsifying records related to the city's minority contracting requirements for developers who receive tax incentives.
The brothers own developer Lux Living and construction company Big Sur Construction, and were behind landlords Asprient Properties and STL CityWide.
The charges are a blow to a developer that, just a few years ago, was among the most prolific apartment builders in St. Louis , and one of its largest residential landlords. Over the past few years, Lux has invested more than $150 million in nearly 1,000 units in DeBaliviere Place, Lafayette Square and Soulard, welcome projects for a city that has tried for decades to revitalize its urban core.
The brothers in recent years also built a new apartment building at Delmar and Interstate 170 in University City and owned hundreds of other units in buildings from South Grand Boulevard to downtown.
But tenants of the brothers' buildings have complained of poor management, neglected maintenance and shoddy construction, and some said the company often used online marketing techniques to tamp down bad reviews rather than address complaints.
Residents of the Ely Walker Lofts on Washington Avenue blamed the brothers for driving the once posh condo building into the ground after they bought enough units to take control of the board and refused to spend enough money on maintenance and security. The building was the site of a high-profile March 2022 s hooting, as well as raucous parties tied to short-term rentals blamed for contributing to downtown's pandemic-era mayhem.
The 24-page indictment, unsealed Friday, charges Chakraverty, Alston and Cao with wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
The indictment details a series of sham transactions where the brothers' submitted documents to the city's development arm, the St. Louis Development Corp., claiming that minority and women-owned businesses performed millions of dollars in work that they did not actually do in order to meet the city's minority and women hiring goals.
In one instance, Big Sur purchased $1 million in appliances from Home Depot but reported to SLDC that it had actually paid a minority firm for the material.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Hal Goldsmith is prosecuting the case.
It's not the first time federal prosecutors have gone after developers who skirt the city's minority hiring requirements.
Brian Kowert, the former chief operating officer and project manager at HBD Construction Inc., was sentenced to 18 months in prison last year for falsifying documents related to the minority hiring program.
& Courts newsletter Get the latest in local public safety news with this weekly email.
