ST. LOUIS — The informant who caused a political earthquake after helping the feds send some of the city’s most prominent political leaders to prison in 2022 is out of the lockup himself after serving less than six months of what was initially a four-year sentence.
But the courts are keeping the reasons for Mohammed Almuttan’s early release a secret. His lawyers and prosecutors have successfully sought the court’s permission to keep Almuttan’s appeals and pleadings sealed since he was sentenced in October 2022 to four years for conspiracy to traffic contraband cigarettes.
Even U.S. District Judge Matthew Schelp’s reasoning for his Aug. 9 order changing Almuttan’s sentence to time served is secret. Not only did Schelp release Almuttan, but he ordered the release of three of his brothers — Rami Almuttan, Hisham Mutan and Saddam Mutan.
All were sentenced to four years in prison (Saddam Mutan got 46 months) as part of a wide-ranging sting that in 2017 that charged them with trafficking illegal cigarettes, manufacturing and selling synthetic drugs and money laundering. The Bureau of Prisons indicates Mohammed Almuttan, who had been serving his sentence since early spring in Wisconsin, was released Aug. 9. His three brothers were released the same day.
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The release appears to close the book on a saga that began seven years ago when federal agents and local police raided the family’s convenience stores and charged dozens in a scheme to buy cheap Missouri cigarettes and sell them in states with high tobacco taxes. Almuttan and his brothers were also accused of manufacturing synthetic drugs in Jefferson County and selling them at the family’s convenience stores, one of which the city eventually ordered closed after neighborhood complaints of violence and drugs.
Arrests follow raids of 23 stores, homes and other locations last week.
But prosecution of the 2017 case slowed, and then, five years later, Almuttan resurfaced in the bombshell indictments of former Ƶ Aldermanic President Lewis Reed, Alderman Jeffrey Boyd and Alderman John Collins-Muhammed. All three politicians were recorded accepting bribes from an unnamed businessman who owned north Ƶ convenience stores. The Post-Dispatch identified Almuttan as the informant who delivered cash bribes to the aldermen in exchange for promises of tax breaks and the sale of city real estate.
A year later, former Alderman Brandon Bosley was indicted for a car insurance fraud scheme in which he sought Almuttan’s help.
Almuttan also cooperated in the indictments of two Ƶ County employees. One, Tony Weaver, was a longtime associate of north Ƶ County politico Elbert Walton and the legislative aide for Walton’s daughter, former County Councilwoman Rochelle Walton-Gray, before Ƶ County Executive Sam Page hired him to a political job at the county jail. Weaver was indicted for a pandemic relief money kickback scheme.
And just last month, a former low level Ƶ County health department employee, Monique Campbell, was indicted for trying to solicit bribes from the owner of Mally’s Supermarket. Almuttan was one of the owners.
A federal search warrant also indicates Almuttan tried to bribe U.S. Rep. William Lacy Clay in 2020, but the documents indicate the Ƶ congressman returned the cash. Clay, who lost his reelection bid that year to Cori Bush, was never charged.
Both the former Ƶ congressman and alderman deny being the unnamed public officials in FBI search warrants related to a bribery sting. Neither was charged.
Shortly before the initial indictments against the city aldermen were unsealed, Mohammed Almuttan reached a deal with prosecutors, who dropped charges of money laundering, conspiracy to traffic controlled substances charge and cigarette trafficking. Only a charge of conspiracy to traffic contraband cigarettes remained. Prosecutors also agreed to say his remaining crime is not one of “moral turpitude,” a class of offenses that can lead to deportation.
Almuttan, a Palestinian who was not a U.S. citizen, could have faced deportation.
Almuttan’s three brothers did have their citizenship, and there less indication that they also worked as informants.
But when Almuttan appeared before former U.S. District Judge Ronnie White in October 2022, the judge said the “harm you caused is immeasurable” and called him the “ringleader, if not the mastermind” of the cigarette and synthetic drug trafficking operations, despite the drug trafficking charges having been dropped.
Almuttan’s attorneys appealed, arguing White’s statements at settlement were improper given the dismissal of the synthetic drug charges. The government did not oppose allowing him to remain free during his appeal. Nor did it oppose keeping the appeal arguments hidden from public view.
But why Judge Ronnie White agreed to cut half a year off of Mohammed Almuttan’s sentence is unclear. Almuttan’s appeal, and the judge’s reasons, are sealed.
Earlier this year, the appeals court sent the case back to White, who shaved six months off of Almuttan’s sentence and that of his brothers for reasons hidden to the public. The four finally reported to prison earlier this year.
Attorneys for the four brothers appealed that sentence, but the appeals court never ordered the trial court to reconsider the sentence.
Instead, Judge White retired at the end of July. A new judge, Schelp, was assigned the case. Within two weeks, Schelp ordered an “attorneys-only” hearing. The government and the brothers’ attorneys filed sealed motions as soon as Schelp ordered the new hearing.
The following day, Almuttan and his brothers were released.
Almuttan and his lawyer, Justin Gelfand, did not return requests for comment. Robert Patrick, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office, declined to comment.
Almuttan, meanwhile is suing the government in a matter related to his conviction: he wants the Food and Nutrition Service to reverse its decision barring his 6 Stars Market on Riverview Boulevard from accepting food stamps. The government disqualified the convenience store from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, citing Almuttan’s conviction.