CLAYTON, Mo. — A former St. Louis County political appointee who has pleaded guilty to fraud involving COVID relief money referred to County Executive Sam Page and former Councilwoman Rochelle Walton Gray in several of his conversations with the FBI informant that took him down, according to a federal court filing.
Page appointed Tony Weaver as a Change Management Coordinator at the St. Louis County Jail for $95,000 a year. Weaver is the last of four St. Louis area politicians nabbed by the same FBI informant who is still awaiting sentencing.
An informant recorded several of Weaver’s conversations with him, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office included them in Wednesday’s filing.
On June 1, 2020, Weaver was recorded as saying:
“If anything comes up, you all need anything from me, you all call me and I work behind the scenes and make it happen, get it done. Because I work inside St. Louis County…, that’s one of the things we’ve been trying to so hard in my political organization, you have to have somebody on the inside, you have to have someone on the outside, and you have the business people. Everybody’s coming together doing their thing. And then, when Sam Page’s term is over, we’ll all be millionaires and won’t have to worry about anything at all…”
On June 19, 2020, Weaver was recorded as stating:
“When Sam (Page) wins again, then we’re really going to start doing some stuff.”
On May 21, 2020, Weaver told the informant:
“You know you can’t give me no check…I don’t want you to do that (make a campaign donation) because then that sheds the light on you giving to Rochelle (Walton-Gray) or Tony…Because we’ve got to turn it into the government…I hope this place is not bugged…that’s how (former St. Louis County Executive Steve) Stenger got caught.”
In the filing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Hal Goldsmith wrote, “The United States has no evidence that County Executive Page was aware of defendant’s schemes, and only uses these statements to illustrate defendant’s misuse of his position and his relationships in his efforts at soliciting the business owner to participate in his scheme.”
There was no similar statement about what the government learned about how much Walton-Gray knew about Weaver’s schemes in the filing.
The government is asking the judge to sentence Weaver to between 12 and 18 months in prison.
“Defendant’s scheme was bold and reflected a level of arrogance which cannot be ignored,” Goldsmith wrote.
Weaver’s sentencing hearing is scheduled for Jan. 25.
Read the full filing here:
