(The Center Square) – A fourth member of the St. Louis Board of Aldermen was indicted for federal crimes within the last 13 months.
Brandon Bosley, who lost his aldermanic seat in a redrawn ward to former Democrat Rep. Rasheen Aldridge in April, allegedly committed insurance fraud while in office. He was indicted on three felony wire fraud charges last week. The indictment was sealed until Monday when he made an initial court appearance and pleaded not guilty.
Lewis Reed was indicted last June on federal charges of bribery and fraud while serving as president of the St. Louis Board of Aldermen, along with Aldermen members Jeffrey Boyd and John Collins-Muhammad. All eventually pleaded guilty and were fined in addition to receiving federal prison sentences.
Bosley is accused of orchestrating a scheme to obtain money from an insurance company by falsely inflating the cost of repairs to a Toyota Prius he was driving. He obtained the car from a businessman who owned a convenience story in Bosley’s ward along with a used car lot and an auto repair business outside the ward, according to federal documents.
Bosley paid $500 in cash for the car, which had an approximate value of $10,000. However, he didn’t register the car or obtain a title in his name, according to the indictment. The title showed a listed purchase price of $3,000.
The car was struck by another driver as it sat in front of Bosley’s office in 2021. After the other driver’s insurance company contacted Bosley about the damages, Bosley allegedly offered a bribe to the businessman to prepare an inflated estimate of the repair costs with the hope the insurance company would consider the car irreparable.
Bosley also asked the businessman to prepare a second and legitimate repair estimate in case he wanted to buy the car back from the insurance company, the indictment states.
The insurance company paid Bosley $7,978.90 for the vehicle, based on the falsely inflated repair estimate submitted to the insurance company. Bosley then asked the businessman to offer the insurance company $2,000 to buy the car back, according to the indictment.
Bosley’s family is synonymous with politics on the north side of the city. He is the son of Freeman Bosley Sr., who served as Ward 3 alderman for 40 years before stepping down in 2017. He succeeded his father in Ward 3.
Bosley’s sister, LaKeySha Bosley, is a member of the Missouri House of Representatives and was arrested in May in Jefferson City for an outstanding traffic warrant for failing to appear in court, according to multiple media outlets.
Freeman Bosley, Jr., his brother, was the city’s first Black mayor. He gained national attention for having his law license suspended indefinitely by the Missouri Supreme Court for mishandling client funds as he began representing high-profile clients associated with the 2014 police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson.
This article First appeared in the center square