A former construction executive in St. Louis is facing federal wire-fraud charges over alleged minority business enterprise fronts.
A grand jury on March 30 indicted Brian Kowert Sr., the former chief operating officer of HBD Construction Co. in federal district court in St. Louis on five counts of wire fraud. Prosecutors say Kowert, who was also an owner and executive vice president of the firm, schemed to defraud project owners plus St. Louis and Missouri governments by falsifying records to inflate HBD’s minority business enterprise (MBE) participation on its projects.