ST. LOUIS — Federal prosecutors have charged a ºüÀêÊÓƵ County jail official with four counts of wire fraud in a scheme to obtain COVID-19 relief funds for a local businessman and split the proceeds, according to an indictment unsealed Tuesday.
Tony Weaver, 63, worked as the legislative assistant to former ºüÀêÊÓƵ County Councilwoman Rochelle Walton Gray before ºüÀêÊÓƵ County Executive Sam Page in 2019 hired him as the “change management coordinator†at the troubled jail.
Page fired him Tuesday after the charges became public.
Weaver, later appearing in federal court Tuesday in handcuffs, pleaded not guilty. He was released from custody on his own recognizance. He declined to speak to reporters gathered outside the courthouse downtown.
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The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Hal Goldsmith is prosecuting the case. Goldsmith, who handles public corruption cases, declined to comment after Weaver’s hearing.
According to the indictment, Weaver approached a small business owner in May 2020 about applying for federal grants through the county, and that his boss on the council, identified in the indictment as “Jane Doe,†needed to know the names of the businessman’s companies because she made the final decision.
In May 2020, while Walton Gray was still on the council, the county launched the ºüÀêÊÓƵ County Small Business Relief, or SBR, program to award grants totaling $17.5 million to small businesses that were affected by stay-at-home orders. The program was funded by the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act or, CARES, Act.
The indictment said the owner of several businesses, including a gas station, convenience mart, supermarket, laundromat and automobile mechanic shop met with Weaver about obtaining grants under the county program. That business owner, described in the indictment only as “John Smith,†was told by Weaver that the council member needed to know the names of each of his businesses “in order to ensure that those SBR applications would be approved and funded by ºüÀêÊÓƵ County.â€
According to the indictment, Weaver and the businessman discussed how much money he could receive:
Weaver: “$15,000 each business. That’s a lot of money when you have four different businesses in one District. You’re up to 65, $75,000.â€
Smith: “There’s the mechanic shop, the laundromat, supermarket, gas station, construction company, and Shepley. That’s six. Six businesses.â€
Weaver: “You get $90,000, sir … That’s $90,000. That’s money, sir … as long as they put in different names.â€
Weaver said he would type up the applications and even though he no longer was an aide to the councilwoman, he “could make sure the SBR applications were approved,†the indictment said.
The applications Weaver prepared “made false representations that the laundromat had been closed for a period of time and the business had to lay off employees as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.â€
Weaver and Smith discussed that they would split any SBR grant funds that Smith’s businesses received:
Smith: “When the money comes in … we split it. … You tell me how we’re gonna split it. OK?â€
Weaver: “There’s so much damn money around ºüÀêÊÓƵ County, it’s crazy.â€
Smith: “We need to get some of that … .â€
Weaver: “Uh huh. Everything they’ve got over there we need to get some of … that’s my attitude.â€
False representations were also made about Smith’s other businesses, the indictment said.
Weaver directed Smith to disguise the true ownership of those businesses by using different email addresses on the application, the indictment said. Under the county’s SBR program, a business owner could only apply for one small business grant.
Although Weaver prepared the applications, he didn’t want to submit them using his own cellphone lest he get in trouble.
“I don’t trust ºüÀêÊÓƵ County,†he tells Smith, according to a transcript of their conversation. “They’re trying to get me on something, brother. I’m too powerful, brother.â€
Four applications were submitted on Smith’s behalf on May 15, 2020, the indictment said.
Afterward, Weaver and Smith discussed how to split the money. Weaver told him, “You know you can’t give me no check.†He also advised against giving a campaign contribution in his companies’ names “because then that sheds the light on you giving to [Jane Doe] or Tony.â€
Then Weaver volunteers: “I hope this place is not bugged … that’s how Stenger got caught,†referring to former County Executive Steve Stenger who was convicted in a pay-to-play scheme and ended up in prison.
It turned out that three of Smith’s four businesses weren’t in Walton Gray’s district, and ultimately none of them received any of the SBR grant money.
Walton Gray did not return a phone call seeking comment. In January 2021, after she lost her council seat to Shalonda Webb, Page hired her as COVID-19 vaccine outreach coordinator for the county. She lost that job in April of this year after voters approved a charter amendment that affected her classification as a county employee.
In December 2020, Weaver met with Smith and advised him that all the SBR grant funds had been paid out:
Weaver: “We have to wait until January because another pot of money’s coming in January. And that might be $20,000 a piece. So that’s what’s going on, man.â€
Smith: “So, what are we gonna do now?â€
Weaver: “Wait until some more money comes in. Only person I know got paid, that’s [C.K.], he gave me $300, maybe 4 … So, we’re gonna have to wait and see what else is out there.â€
It was not immediately clear who “C.K.†is.
Weaver is a longtime north ºüÀêÊÓƵ County politico close to Walton Gray’s father, disbarred attorney and former Missouri State Representative Elbert Walton Jr.
Weaver led the North County political organization Unity PAC, which Elbert Walton founded. He also did work with Walton on the Northeast Ambulance and Fire Protection District, which was embroiled in allegations of financial mismanagement a decade ago.
The Walton family is a powerful force in north ºüÀêÊÓƵ County. In addition to Walton Gray, who also served as a state representative before her tenure on the County Council, Walton’s other daughter, Angela Mosley is a state senator. Mosley’s brother-in-law, Alan Gray, and her husband, Jay Mosley, are also serving in the Missouri House.
Page appointed Weaver to the jail job in December 2019. The new job came with a $82,500 salary, a raise of more than 80% from his $45,406 salary as Walton Gray’s assistant. Page hired Walton Gray shortly after she had voted with his allies on the County Council in an ill-fated attempt to keep one of his allies as council chair in the days before her successor, Webb, was sworn in.
Doug Moore, a spokesman for Page, said in a statement: “Tony Weaver was fired today by the county executive. As the indictment states, the controls put in place by Dr. Page’s administration for the distribution of federal funds prevented any theft of taxpayer funds and the indictments are not related to work he was doing for the county executive in Justice Services.â€
Weaver has served under four different jail directors, joining top officials in monthly meetings of the Justice Services Advisory Board and positioning himself as a mediator in conflicts between supervisors and frontline corrections officers while officials attempted reforms at the facility in the wake of six inmate deaths over 2019 and early 2020.
Jane Dueker, who is challenging Page in the August Democratic Party primary, was outside the courthouse Tuesday as media gathered. Dueker, an attorney and former Stenger political adviser who has been a longtime Page critic, took the opportunity to criticize Page for his hiring of Weaver. She alleged Weaver had “a ton of influence†in the jail and in county government in general.
“I find it difficult to believe that the way Tony Weaver talked in those tapes about what control he has over the mechanisms of county government, he doesn’t act like that if he doesn’t feel he’s been given the power,†she said. “And that’s a major problem.â€
The unnamed businessman
Unrelated indictments unsealed last week naming three city officials — Aldermanic President Lewis Reed, Alderman Jeffrey Boyd, and former Alderman John Collins-Muhammad — also recorded their interactions with a small businessman.
In those indictments, the businessman is identified as “John Doe,†but based on other records appears to be Mohammed Almuttan, a gas station and convenience store operator who also owns a Jennings auto repair shop and laundromat on West Florissant Avenue.
In the Weaver indictment, the businessman mentions he owns a “mechanic shop, the laundromat, supermarket, gas station, construction company, and Shepley.â€
Almuttan is the owner of a property where a convenience and liquor store is located at 100 Shepley Drive in unincorporated north ºüÀêÊÓƵ County.
Almuttan was charged in a 2017 cigarette and synthetic marijuana trafficking sting. Many of his federal charges were dismissed in April, when he pleaded guilty to a remaining charge of conspiracy to traffic in contraband cigarettes.
Neither Almuttan nor his lawyer have responded to requests for comment.
Updated at 5:20 p.m. Tuesday, June 7.Â