For the second time in less than a month, the Justice Department dropped charges against a client represented by Brad Bondi, the brother of Attorney General Pam Bondi.
Federal prosecutors in Missouri agreed this week to dismiss an indictment against property developer Sid Chakraverty.
Chakraverty was accused of felony wire fraud for allegedly lying about hiring women- and minority-owned subcontractors to obtain tax incentives.
As recently as three weeks ago, career prosecutors under the Biden administration argued that Chakraverty should face criminal penalties.
The newly appointed U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri, Thomas Albus, filed the paperwork to end the prosecution, per ABC News.
Albus, a Trump appointee, told the judge the “defendants have agreed to make restitution of the taxes” and said it was “prudent for the government to end this criminal prosecution.”
Albus explained that the decision was part of a broader directive to stop pursuing cases tied to “race- and sex-based presumptions like the [disadvantaged business enterprise] program” in St. Louis.
The development comes just weeks after federal prosecutors in Florida dropped charges against another Bondi client, Carolina Amesty. Amesty faced two counts of theft of government property tied to alleged COVID relief fraud.
Amesty