ST. LOUIS 鈥 Federal officials just sent three former members of the 狐狸视频 Board of Aldermen to prison for taking bribes from a north 狐狸视频 gas station owner.
But recently released court documents indicate the FBI provided cash to an informant who offered bribes to at least two other public officials: former U.S. Rep. William Lacy Clay and current 3rd Ward Alderman Brandon Bosley.
The revelations spring from new details sprinkled through an unsealed search warrant application. It was filed in the middle of the investigation that took down Aldermanic President Lewis Reed, Alderman John Collins-Muhammad and Alderman Jeffrey Boyd last spring.
Together, the revelations implicate scions of two of the city鈥檚 most storied political families.
Clay, 66, represented 狐狸视频 in Congress for 20 years, inheriting a seat first won by his father, civil rights leader Bill Clay Sr., in 1968. He now works as a lobbyist. Bosley, 35, is the son of longtime Alderman Freeman Bosley Sr. and the brother of the city鈥檚 first Black mayor, Freeman Bosley Jr. He also is a candidate this spring to represent the city鈥檚 new 14th Ward.
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Federal prosecutors made their case through the gas station owner, Mohammed Almuttan, who was secretly a federal informant. Almuttan first met with Collins-Muhammad. Then Collins-Muhammad introduced him to Reed and Boyd.
But those weren鈥檛 the only people with whom Collins-Muhammad brokered introductions.
Documents say Collins-Muhammad also introduced the informant to an unidentified power player who was offered the largest single bribe on record in the case, and another alderman who accepted a cash bribe through an associate. Neither person has been charged with a crime.
The power player, identified by prosecutors as 鈥淧ublic Official One,鈥 met with Almuttan and Collins-Muhammad at a gas station on June 18, 2020, and was given an envelope with $10,000 in cash inside. He left the station, but then came back later and returned the money.
Though his name is redacted, details scattered throughout the search warrant fit the congressman鈥檚 description. They indicate the man was an elected official, with oversight of federal projects in 狐狸视频, who traveled with a security detail and came to the city on June 18 from somewhere else 鈥 clues that point to Clay.
The newly released search warrant similarly confirms the existence of a previously unidentified alderman in the investigation, and it fills out that alderman鈥檚 profile.
The documents describe a meeting between Almuttan, Collins-Muhammad and an alderman on Jan. 31, 2020, in which the alderman directed Almuttan to make a $2,000 payment to an associate in exchange for an official letter supporting a 15-year tax abatement on one of Almuttan鈥檚 properties.
Five days later, Bosley wrote a letter to city development officials supporting 15 years of tax abatement on a property tied to Almuttan.
Both Clay and Bosley deny accepting any cash from Almuttan.
鈥淚鈥檝e never been out of balance with ethics, I鈥檝e never been ethically challenged,鈥 Clay said in an interview Thursday. 鈥淪o I don鈥檛 know who the person is they鈥檙e referencing, but it wasn鈥檛 me. I鈥檝e never had an ethical challenge. Look at my career, and you鈥檒l see I鈥檝e never been brought up on ethics charges in the House or the state legislature.鈥
Pressed on who else it could be, Clay said he didn鈥檛 know.
鈥淚 have no idea who the official was and don鈥檛 really care,鈥 he said. 鈥淚鈥檝e moved on with my life. I鈥檓 no longer in politics.鈥
Bosley said he met with Almuttan around a dozen times about various issues, as he would with any other business owner, but consistently rejected offers of cash bribes.
鈥淚 never took nothing from him, never had any hand-to-hand exchange, nor hand-to-hand with assistants of mine,鈥 Bosley said. 鈥淧eriod, point blank. That鈥檚 a flat-out lie.鈥
He specifically denied writing the support letter for Almuttan鈥檚 business on Feb. 5 in exchange for money.
鈥淢e giving him a tax abatement is just supporting a business,鈥 he said.
The U.S. Attorney鈥檚 Office declined to comment.
鈥業 usually take checks鈥
The indictments of Reed, Boyd and Collins-Muhammad, handed up last spring by a federal grand jury, described a 鈥淧ublic Official One鈥 who accepted $10,000 in cash from Almuttan but returned it later that day.
In at least one instance, Collins-Muhammad indicated the official had federal power. Specifically, Collins-Muhammad referenced a project that involved city ownership and 鈥渇ederal oversight,鈥 which he said would give him and the official sway in awarding contracts related to it, according to the newly released search warrant. Clay was a key player in the decision in 2016 to build the new $1.7 billion National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency in the 1st Congressional District.
Collins-Muhammad also told Almuttan the official would not get involved in 鈥渟mall municipal matters鈥 that Almuttan asked about. The official, Collins-Muhammad said, 鈥済ets involved in matters that make him money and things that make sense to him.鈥
The alderman鈥檚 ties to the former congressman stretched back years. In college, Collins-Muhammad worked for former state Rep. Rodney Hubbard, whose family was allied with Clay. In December 2020, as Clay was preparing to leave Congress after he was defeated by Cori Bush in the Democratic primary, Collins-Muhammad sponsored the resolution honoring him. In February 2022, Clay, now a lobbyist, donated $500 to Collins-Muhammad鈥檚 reelection campaign. And then two months later, weeks before a federal grand jury handed up indictments, Collins-Muhammad emceed an event naming a stretch of Natural Bridge Avenue after Clay.
In March 2020, Almuttan and Collins-Muhammad began speaking about the possibility of meeting with an unnamed official to help Almuttan win government contracts, according to the search warrant.
On June 17, 2020, Collins-Muhammad reached out to an unidentified person to set up a meeting after speaking with Almuttan about lucrative contracts.
Collins-Muhammad told the person Almuttan 鈥渨anted an opportunity to meet and to contribute to his campaign in a 鈥榤ajor way.鈥欌
The person responded that they would be in 狐狸视频 on a certain date and suggested they meet.
After the June 17 call, Almuttan asked Collins-Muhammad if he should 鈥渢hrow him something.鈥
鈥淔--k yeah, you should throw him something,鈥 Collins-Muhammad responded. 鈥淚f you don鈥檛 throw him something, he鈥檒l never come back.鈥
Almuttan suggested giving $10,000, which Collins-Muhammad said was good. Collins-Muhammad also told Almuttan that during the meeting, the person would probably have a security detail 鈥 but that the detail knew to step away when the person was about to 鈥渃onduct 鈥榖usiness.鈥欌
The next day, June 18, 2020, the person identified by prosecutors as 鈥淧ublic Official One鈥 met with Almuttan and Collins-Muhammad at one of Almuttan鈥檚 gas stations.
Clay was in town around the time of the meeting. According to his Facebook page, the congressman was in 狐狸视频 rather than Washington on June 20, 2020, for events following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
At the June 18 meeting in 狐狸视频, Almuttan asked the official for help getting contracts for his trucking and hauling business.
Almuttan then handed the official an envelope with $10,000 cash inside provided by the FBI, according to the search warrant.
鈥淔or me?鈥 the official said, before putting it in his pocket.
鈥淧lease help us,鈥 Almuttan said.
鈥淎ll right,鈥 the official replied. 鈥淢an, I usually take checks.鈥
鈥淐ash is the king,鈥 Almuttan said.
The public official then looked at the ceiling: 鈥淵ou know you got cameras and s--t.鈥
Almuttan assured him there were no cameras. And he called Collins-Muhammad 鈥渕y brother.鈥
鈥淚f it鈥檚 anything other than that,鈥 the official said, 鈥渋t ain鈥檛 gonna be good.鈥
Then the official left, and Almuttan gave Collins-Muhammad $3,000 for arranging the meeting.
But soon afterward, the official returned to the gas station, summoned Collins-Muhammad and returned the cash. He directed Collins-Muhammad to have Almuttan write two checks, each for $5,000, to his political action committee instead.
The maximum annual amount an individual can contribute to a federal PAC is $5,000.
Collins-Muhammad then returned to Almuttan and explained the situation. He said that the official believed too many people knew him in the store and that someone might have followed him. Collins-Muhammad also told Almuttan to write the checks.
Almuttan resisted, saying he didn鈥檛 want his name on anything. But Collins-Muhammad said the request was a test. 鈥淚 know he takes cash for a fact,鈥 Collins-Muhammad said, but 鈥渋t鈥檚 his first time dealing with you.鈥
Almuttan agreed, and later the two made their way to another location and delivered the checks to the public official鈥檚 鈥渃lose associate,鈥 according to court documents.
The place that Almuttan and Collins-Muhammad went is not explicitly named, but there are hints. Court documents say it is in north 狐狸视频 and owned by someone whose name is redacted, and that the two men met a person outside 鈥渢he Lounge.鈥
Darryl Piggee, the former chief of staff to Clay and treasurer of Clay鈥檚 PAC, is the registered agent for the NBC Lounge, a bar on Dr. Martin Luther King Drive.
Piggee is also a lawyer at Clayton law firm Stone, Leyton & Gershman. The search warrant describes 鈥渁 狐狸视频 attorney鈥 who 鈥渞emains very close鈥 to the unnamed official. Collins-Muhammad also tells Almuttan that an unnamed 鈥渁ttorney鈥 is the official鈥檚 鈥渞ight-hand man.鈥
Reached Thursday, Piggee wouldn鈥檛 speculate on who the public official was. But he did point out that the feds, in the indictment, noted the checks were never cashed.
鈥淔ortunately, whoever that guy was was smart enough and honest enough not to commit the crime,鈥 Piggee said. 鈥淗e was kind of in a different league than the people who are now in trouble. But he probably won鈥檛 get commended for being that, he鈥檒l get blamed for something. It鈥檚 just a no-win situation.鈥
鈥淚t sounds to me like an attempt at entrapment that didn鈥檛 work,鈥 Piggee added. 鈥淭hey targeted this person and he鈥檚 not a criminal.鈥
Reminded that the official took the cash before thinking better of it, Piggee said 鈥渋t鈥檚 easy to be relaxed when you鈥檙e not crooked.鈥
鈥淭here鈥檚 a school of thought, that when something like that happens, you kind of want to figure out what鈥檚 going on, too,鈥 Piggee said. 鈥淏ecause it was strange, and for people who are experienced and been around a long time, if somebody came out of the blue with something like that, they really wouldn鈥檛 be able to trick them or fool 鈥檈m. If somebody鈥檚 been around like 30-plus years, they can smell it a mile off. And they kind of might want everybody to see what was going on. Who knows who he told, OK? They don鈥檛 tell that story though, do they? Who knows who that 鈥榝ederal official number one鈥 told what was going on when he saw it.鈥
鈥淲hoever that guy was,鈥 Piggee said, 鈥淚 don鈥檛 know if he鈥檚 ever been in trouble for anything like that.鈥
But he declined to comment on whether he met Almuttan and Collins-Muhammad outside his bar.
鈥淎s a lawyer that鈥檚 a very serious matter that you鈥檙e bringing up and I really don鈥檛 have anything to say about it,鈥 he said.
But, he added, 鈥淭he fact that they put 鈥楲ounge鈥 on there, they purposely did that s--t. That wasn鈥檛 a mistake.鈥
鈥楴othing I鈥檝e done is nefarious鈥
Almuttan had two meetings with two aldermen on Jan. 31, 2020, the search warrant says 鈥 before he was introduced to Boyd and Reed.
The first meeting was with Collins-Muhammad alone. Almuttan had previously asked him for help securing a tax break on a gas station he wanted to build in the 21st Ward, and Collins-Muhammad provided an update on the administrative process he鈥檇 promised to help Almuttan navigate. Then Almuttan asked Collins-Muhammad how he could approach another alderman for help with a similar tax break for a property he owned in a different ward.
Collins-Muhammad said that Almuttan should bribe the alderman through an 鈥渋ntermediary.鈥 He suggested Almuttan bring in the alderman鈥檚 assistant for some sham consulting work and pay them as much as $5,000.
Later that day, Almuttan and Collins-Muhammad met with an unidentified male alderman to discuss the possibility of having him provide a letter of support for a 15-year tax abatement for Almuttan鈥檚 property in his ward.
During the meeting, the unidentified alderman directed a city staffer to prepare the letter. At the end of the meeting, Almuttan offered the alderman $2,000 in cash.
He was directed to make the payment to an assistant, who at the time was just down the street at a beauty shop. Almuttan did as he was told.
Five days later, Bosley wrote an official support letter to the 狐狸视频 Development Corp., which handles tax abatement applications. In the letter, obtained by the Post-Dispatch under an open records request, Bosley expresses his support for a 15-year tax abatement for the Shell gas station at 2800 North Florissant Avenue linked to Almuttan and his family members.
In an interview, Bosley repeatedly insisted that the timing of the letter was coincidental.
鈥淣othing I鈥檝e done is nefarious,鈥 Bosley said. 鈥淚 didn鈥檛 ask that man for no money, nor did he offer me any money. Period. They don鈥檛 have no video offering me cash, and if they do, they got a video of me saying 鈥業 don鈥檛 want nothing from you.鈥欌
A person familiar with the matter said an application from a property owner or developer was never submitted.
The city in the fall took action to shutter the Shell station for nuisance violations following a high-profile shooting there.