A former St. Louis construction company co-owner and chief operating officer has been indicted on charges of wire fraud for allegedly falsifying records to inflate minority business participation on construction projects.
More than $900,000 in false labor and materials expenses for “minority business enterprises,” or MBEs, were recorded, according to a federal grand jury indictment.
Brian Kowert Sr., former co-owner, executive vice president and chief operating officer of HBD Construction Company in St. Louis, has been indicted on five counts of wire fraud in U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Missouri. The charges stemmed from construction and redevelopment projects between 2014 and 2022 in St. Louis and elsewhere in Missouri in which he filed false minority business enterprise records on contracts he obtained, the March 30 indictment says. Set MBE percentages were required in some cases for the projects to earn tax breaks or government funding or both.
In some cases, Kowert paid actual minority businesses enterprises small fees to be named as material suppliers on a project in name only, the indictment says. The actual suppliers were not MBEs, and the real MBEs served only as “pass through” companies for the money.
The indictment says the scheme was meant to defraud the City of St. Louis, the State of Missouri, and several HBD client companies.
The indictment outlined the three following alleged incidents:
Quadrangle Project
