A Nigerian-born engineer, Adebanjo Popoola, has pleaded guilty in the United States to diverting $1.64 million meant for repairing dilapidated buildings in St. Louis to himself and his family members.
Popoola, 57, a former building inspector with the City of St. Louis, admitted to three counts of wire fraud before a U.S. District Court in St. Louis on Tuesday.
According to court documents from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Popoola supervised two city-funded rehabilitation schemes, Stable Communities STL and Prop NS, in his role as a building division inspector. The Stable Communities STL programme was financed through the federal American Rescue Plan Act and covered privately owned properties, while Prop NS catered to residential properties owned by the city’s Land Reutilization Authority, funded through general obligation bonds.
His duties included selecting properties for rehabilitation, drafting project scopes, awarding bids, inspecting finished work, and approving contractor payments.
Prosecutors say Popoola set up a scheme in which his sister — who lives in Texas and had never been to St. Louis — registered a company called Farst Construction LLC in Missouri in October 2022. His then-fiancée, now wife, had earlier registered another company, Premier Finish Contractors LLC, in February 2021.
Between June 2023 and November 2024, Popoola funnelled roughly $1.4 million in Stable Communities STL contracts and $339,500 in Prop NS contracts to Farst Construction. He also steered about $1.3 million in Stable Communities STL contracts and $853,100 in Prop NS contracts to Premier Finish Contractors between October 2023 and May 2024.
Of the $7.19 million paid out under the Stable Communities STL programme, the two companies collected a combined $3.32 million — 42 percent of the total funds disbursed.
Investigators discovered that some of the projects billed to the companies were never completed, or were not done according to specifications, even though Popoola had certified the work as satisfactory.
After subcontractors were paid, prosecutors say Popoola split about $1.64 million with his wife and sister. The money moved through joint bank accounts he held with each of them.
Popoola confessed to spending the funds on mortgage payments, vehicle purchases and repairs, travel, his 2023 wedding in Hawaii, casino gambling, and dining out.
He also admitted to hiding his ties to the two companies by falsely stating on city employment disclosure forms in 2022 and 2023 that he had no personal stake in any city contracts. His wife and sister similarly submitted false certifications on contract paperwork denying that any city official had a private interest in the deals.
Popoola is due to be sentenced on October 6. Each wire fraud count carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000, along with restitution of the stolen funds.
The FBI investigated the case with help from the City of St. Louis Comptroller’s Office. Assistant U.S. Attorney Hal Goldsmith is handling the prosecution.
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