Vic Alston: Lux Living, Fraud Dismissal, and Brad Bondi

Vic Alston is a St. Louis real estate developer who runs Lux Living with his brother, Sidarth “Sid” Chakraverty. In September 2024, a federal grand jury indicted both men and their accountant on wire fraud charges tied to St. Louis’s minority contracting programs. Less than a year later, in August 2025, a newly installed interim U.S. Attorney dismissed the case, a decision that drew national attention because Chakraverty’s defense lawyer was Brad Bondi, brother of U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi.

Who Vic Alston Is

Before real estate, Alston worked in tech. He joined Ixia, a California network testing company, around 2004 and was named president and CEO in May 2012.¹ He resigned in October 2013 after an internal investigation by Ixia’s audit committee found he had misrepresented his academic credentials, falsely claiming bachelor’s and master’s degrees in computer science from Stanford, and had also misstated his age and early employment history.²

In 2017, the Securities and Exchange Commission sanctioned Alston for accounting violations during his time as CEO. The SEC found he had directed the improper splitting of purchase orders to accelerate revenue recognition. He was ordered to pay a $100,000 civil penalty and was barred from serving as an officer or director of any publicly traded company for five years. He settled without admitting or denying wrongdoing.¹

Court filings in the federal case note that “Vic Chakraverty” and “Vic Alston” refer to the same person, and confirm that he and Sid Chakraverty are brothers despite the different surnames.³

What Lux Living Is

Alston and Chakraverty operate a set of connected companies: Lux Living, the development arm; Big Sur Construction, the building side; and Asprient Properties, later renamed STL CityWide, which handles property management.⁴

The company built its portfolio around luxury apartments in St. Louis neighborhoods including the Central West End and Soulard, with projects such as The Chelsea, The Hudson, and The SoHo. It later expanded into St. Louis County with proposed complexes in University City, Crestwood, and Maryland Heights.⁵⁶ In Kansas City, the firm pursued a $55 million riverfront development, a 228-unit Crossroads building, and the Katz on Main renovation of the historic Katz Drug Store into a 192-unit complex.⁷ The riverfront and a separate Freight House Village plan were later canceled after public opposition and scrutiny of the company’s track record.⁸

The 2024 Federal Fraud Indictment

On September 20, 2024, a federal grand jury in the Eastern District of Missouri charged Alston, Chakraverty, and their chief accountant Shijing “Poppy” Cao with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and eleven counts of wire fraud. Each count carried up to twenty years in prison and a $250,000 fine.⁹

Prosecutors alleged that the three defrauded the City of St. Louis’s Minority Business Enterprise and Women Owned Business Enterprise programs to secure tax incentives for two luxury apartment projects, The Chelsea in DeBaliviere Place and The SoHo in Soulard.¹⁰

The alleged scheme worked on paper. According to the indictment, the defendants issued sham “joint checks” to certified minority- and women-owned subcontractors alongside non-certified companies that actually performed the work, then submitted fraudulent utilization reports, “Good Faith Narratives,” and lien waivers to the St. Louis Development Corporation. The paperwork made it appear that certified firms had done millions of dollars of work they had not done.⁹

The dollar figures were striking. On The Chelsea, a women-owned subcontractor was paid roughly $21,504 for real work, but the defendants allegedly reported that the firm had supplied $272,393 in materials and labor. On The SoHo, the same firm did about $60,780 in actual work while defendants allegedly attributed $1.15 million in non-certified labor and materials to it. In a separate arrangement, an African American-owned company was allegedly paid a 5% markup to allow $2.17 million in non-minority work, including $1 million in Home Depot appliance purchases, to be falsely credited to its name.⁹

How the Charges Were Dismissed

On August 27, 2025, the charges against all three defendants were dropped. Interim U.S. Attorney Thomas C. Albus, appointed by Attorney General Pam Bondi and sworn in less than a month earlier, personally filed the motion to dismiss.¹¹¹²

Albus argued that the Department of Justice had determined that government programs using race- and sex-based presumptions, like the city’s Disadvantaged Business Enterprise program, were unconstitutional, and that DOJ would no longer defend them against constitutional challenges. He noted that the City of St. Louis had recently suspended the awarding of contracts with race- and sex-based goals. On that basis, he concluded it was “prudent for the government to end this criminal prosecution.”¹¹

As part of the resolution, the defendants agreed to pay back city tax breaks they had received, including over $1.4 million in sales tax exemptions and an active property tax abatement worth $1.6 million over ten years on a Pershing Avenue apartment building.¹³

The reasoning drew sharp criticism. Former Missouri Court of Appeals Justice Booker T. Shaw said the constitutionality of the program was beside the point: “Fraud is fraud. Perhaps going forward, some decision will be made ultimately that the program was unconstitutional. But as it stands and at the time they were charged, there was no question about the constitutionality of the program.”⁴

The Brad Bondi Connection

According to court filings, Chakraverty retained Brad Bondi, the Attorney General’s brother, as his defense attorney in July 2025. A spokesperson for Chakraverty told ABC News that Bondi had actually been working on the case since before the 2024 election.¹⁴

Congressional Democrats identified what they called a “troubling pattern” of DOJ intervention in cases involving Brad Bondi’s clients. The other examples they cited included the dismissal of COVID-relief fraud charges against Carolina Amesty after Brad Bondi was retained, DOJ intervention in a lawsuit brought by the Cruise Lines International Association where Brad Bondi served as counsel, and a full presidential pardon of Trevor Milton, a former fraud convict Brad Bondi had represented.¹⁵

In December 2025, Senator Adam Schiff and Representative Dave Min led a group of congressional Democrats in sending a formal letter to the Attorney General and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche requesting all documents related to any recusal or screening arrangements between the Attorney General and her brother’s cases, with a January 2, 2026 deadline.¹⁶ Reports indicate that career prosecutors and Albus himself had initially believed criminal penalties were warranted in the Lux Living case before the charges were dropped.¹⁷

When no response arrived by the deadline, Schiff and Min escalated in March 2026, formally asking the DOJ Inspector General to investigate whether Attorney General Bondi had improperly influenced cases involving her brother or failed to follow mandatory recusal and ethics protocols.¹⁵ The DOJ has maintained that Attorney General Bondi “had no role” in the decision to dismiss the Lux Living charges and that the decision was made through “proper channels.”¹⁴

Where Lux Living Stands Now

Beyond the federal case, Lux Living properties have drawn persistent complaints from tenants: chronic maintenance failures, pest infestations, broken elevators, heating and cooling breakdowns, flooding, and non-functional outlets. A partial building collapse at an occupied five-story complex in May 2021 was attributed to years of disrepair.¹⁸¹³

The company also drew criticism for receiving large tax abatements on multiple St. Louis projects and selling the properties to out-of-state investors shortly after completion, prompting the City of St. Louis to create a new clawback policy for tax incentives.¹⁹ In 2023, a Missouri state commission sued STL CityWide for allegedly operating as a real estate brokerage without a license.²⁰

The Kansas City Katz on Main project shows where the business currently stands. The $37.6 million development, backed by a 75% tax abatement over ten years and $600,000 in public infrastructure funds from the Kansas City Council, has been plagued by construction delays, unpaid contractor bills, and mechanics’ liens.²¹ Originally slated for completion in 2024, the project was still facing nearly $1 million in fresh liens as of early 2026 from roofing, plumbing, and electrical contractors. Chakraverty has said the project will reach full completion by mid-2026.²²

1
SEC. In the Matter of Victor Alston, Administrative Proceeding
2
Los Angeles Business Journal. Resume Problems Cause Ixia CEO to Resign
3
CaseMine. United States v. Chakraverty
4
St. Louis Public Radio. How Developers Charged With Fraud in St. Louis Caught a Break From Trump’s U.S. Attorney
5
KCUR. Lux Living Failed to Disclose SEC Violations and Lawsuits in Bid for Kansas City Riverfront Project
6
KSDK. City Apartments Expands St. Louis County Lux Living
7
Flatland KC. St. Louis Developer Pursuing $55 Million Riverfront Apartment Plan
8
Kansas City Star. Lux Living Katz on Main Kansas City
9
Spectrum News. Operators of Lux Living, Big Sur Construction Indicted
10
St. Louis Public Radio. Feds Indict Lux Living Owners on Charges of Defrauding St. Louis Minority Hiring Program
11
Kansas City Star. Federal Fraud Charges Against Lux Living Developers Dismissed
12
U.S. Department of Justice. Interim United States Attorney Thomas C. Albus Sworn In
13
St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Federal Prosecutors Drop Fraud Charges Against St. Louis Developers
14
ABC News. DOJ Drops Charges Against Client of AG Pam Bondi’s Brother
15
Sen. Adam Schiff’s Office. Sen. Schiff, Rep. Min Urge DOJ Independent Watchdog to Launch Investigation Into Pam Bondi’s Potential Improper Influence Over Cases Involving Brother
16
Bloomberg Law. Democrats Probe DOJ Actions on Cases Involving Bondi’s Brother
17
U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary Democrats. Brad Bondi DOJ Intervention Letter
18
NextSTL. We Must Start Vetting Developers
19
Kansas City Star. Lux Living Tax Abatement Clawback Policy
20
St. Louis Business Journal. State Sues CityWide Working Without License
21
KCUR. Only a Shell Remains of Midtown’s Katz Drug Store
22
Kansas City Star. Katz on Main Liens and Construction Status