The DOJ has dropped its case against two brothers who were targeted by the Biden regime based on a DEI program ran out of the City of St. Louis.
TGP reported 10 days ago on a case involving DEI in St. Louis.
Under the watch of pro-BLM radical mayor Tishaura Jones, St. Louis incurred the highest murder rate in the country, and the steepest population loss as families left the city by the thousands to escape the war zone atmosphere. Things were so bad that the state had to step in and take control of the city’s police force.
But what were Mayor Jones and the Democrats who ran the city focused on? Not crime, or development, or quality of life – They focused on pushing Reparations, Closing prisons, Installing a “Deputy Mayor for Racial Equity”, and creating a Rube-Goldberg-machine DEI program that encourages graft and grinds development to a halt.
Even though Jones was tossed on her ear in a historic landslide defeat in April—losing by 30 points—progressive prosecutor Hal Goldsmith is still pushing to send minority builders to jail for the “crime” of trying to navigate the city’s ridiculous DEI maze.
The Case Against Brothers Sid Chakraverty and Vic Alston
A building company owned by brothers Sid Chakraverty and Vic Alston stepped up to develop housing in blighted areas of St. Louis. Even though the brothers are themselves racial minorities and worked with a number of minority- and women-owned subcontractors on the buildings, progressive crusader Goldsmith and the DOJ indicted them on fraud charges for the alleged “crime” of not filling out their DEI reports accurately.
Let’s be clear: the city got what they wanted. Brand-new quality buildings in blighted areas. No money misused. No investors robbed. The only “victim” even alleged is the DEI bureaucracy—the St. Louis Development Corporation—charged with administering the racial quota system.
However, progressive prosecutor Goldsmith (below), and former mayor Tishaura Jones were obsessed with “racial justice” at the expense of real justice. In a similar prosecution from a few years back Goldsmith, described the DEI program as intended “to right the wrong … of years and years of racism” and that the City should be “merciless” in enforcing it.
Illegal and Unconstitutional DEI Racism
This year the city of St. Louis was forced to shut down the same DEI program Sid and Vic are being charged with misleading. Why? Because the Supreme Court has declared racial discrimination in the name of DEI unconstitutional. And the Trump DOJ is going after local governments and institutions for violating the Constitution.
In early August the newly elected Mayor of St. Louis announced that the city’s DEI policy was a great step forward –
However, the city would pause the policy as of August 4th.
As reported previously
Vic and Sid’s case looked worse and worse the more we dug into the details of how St. Louis runs its DEI maze. The “goals” the city set up for minority participation were just a bureaucratic trap, vague and constantly changing, with regulators seemingly making it up as they went along, saying “we don’t have written processes” and “whatever we say it is, that’s what it’s going to be.” How do you comply with that? You don’t. The arbitrariness is the point.
There was no victim, no theft, nothing missing or lost. This is a politically motivated prosecution driven by the desire to protect a collapsing DEI program, not uphold justice.
Federal law was being weaponized to enforce an unconstitutional policy—and even the City of St. Louis is backing away from it.
Update – Great News Today
Today the DOJ’s US Attorney in the Eastern District of Missouri, Thomas Albus, moved for the dismissal of the indictment in the case. Here is his motion.
Motion to Dismiss Indictment STL Builders by Joe Ho
As a result, the attorneys on the case issued the following statement:
Statement on behalf of Sid Chakraverty and Vic Alston on dismissal of their case by U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Missouri
Per spokesman Jim McCarthy
With a sense of relief and confidence in our integrity, we are pleased to know that the case brought against Sid and Vic last summer is now over. They are enormously gratified that this lengthy and unnecessary ordeal is finally behind them. That resolution is a credit to the superb acumen of their attorneys, Brad Bondi and Renato Mariotti, whose filings made compellingly clear that this case could not withstand either a jury of St. Louisans or the constitutional scrutiny of the federal bench.
The Paul Hastings team has worked with diligent expertise on this case for more than a year and Mr. Mariotti for over a year before that. All throughout, their perseverance and wisdom was unwavering. That was clear when, just two days after the team filed our motion to dismiss, the City of St. Louis withdrew the very program that had been the entire basis of the litigation, obviously realizing it was legally untenable. They also demonstrated how federal jurisprudence has plainly rejected the legal theories at issue in the case.
Sid and Vic also want to extend heartfelt thanks to the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of St. Louis, Thomas Albus, for his professionalism and sensible action in resolving this matter so swiftly after taking office.
Even during the most difficult days of this process, Sid and Vic have continued with their hard-working vocation to build first-rate, affordable residential apartment buildings for the communities where they have lived and worked for years. That’s the kind of entrepreneurial spirit that we can all celebrate in the United States, the greatest country in the world.
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Contact: Jim McCarthy
(202) 257 2767
Jim@CounterPointStrategies.com
Congratulations to all involved.
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