ST. LOUIS — When St. Louis County released a set of federal subpoenas Monday evening, county councilmember Tim Fitch was surprised to see them after days of pushing for access.
But even more surprising, he says, is how long the County Executive's office had been holding onto them.
"The most shocking part to me wasn't the request for records, it was the date on the request for records," Fitch, a Republican representing District 3, said. "These go back to last fall."
The County Executive's office was aware of the federal investigation nearly nine months before former appointee Tony Weaver's June 7 indictment in an alleged COVID kickback scheme.
"He did not bother to share this with the legislative branch of government. We're supposed to be an equal branch of government," Fitch said.
In the first subpoena dated Sept. 20, 2021, investigators requested "any and all records" related to "Coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic grants and loans" at four companies, all sharing the Mally name.
Property registration documents also show Mohammed Almuttan as the owner of addresses listed in a city corruption case against former St. Louis City Board of Aldermen President Lewis Reed and former Aldermen John Collins-Muhammad and Jeffrey Boyd.
The FBI quotes Almuttan's private conversations with all three aldermen throughout their documents, suggesting he may have been wearing a wire during meetings.
Almuttan was indicted on drug and money laundering charges in 2017, though those charges were dropped in April, about a month before Collins-Muhammad resigned under federal scrutiny.
Subsequent subpoenas request information on COVID relief for another ten businesses. Of those, county officials say half — Midwestern Construction and Development, Kathy’s Bissell Lounge, The Fletcher Company LLC, Building Systems Technologies, and J&L Enterprises — received the maximum $15,000 in county COVID relief money.