A former St. Louis city building inspector pleaded guilty to three counts of wire fraud In federal court Tuesday after directing funds to fix up buildings into his own pocket.
Adebanjo “Banjo” Popoola pleaded guilty to the three felonies as part of a plea agreement, one in which prosecutors didn’t drop any charges.
The June 30 guilty plea is the latest in a year-and-a-half-long saga that started in December 2024, when SLM reported that Popoola was connected to Farst Construction, which had received $1 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act funds through city programs intended to stabilize vacant buildings. State records showed Farst had originally been set up by Popoola’s sister, a nurse residing in Texas who prosecutors now say never set foot in St. Louis. Popoola was one of the two inspectors responsible for overseeing the very programs that awarded the company contracts for the ARPA-funded work…