Adebanjo Popoola

Introduction

Adebanjo “Banjo” Popoola, a 58-year-old former building division inspector for the City of St. Louis, was sentenced on November 3, 2026, to six years in federal prison and ordered to repay the $1.64 million he stole from two programs that existed to repair the city’s decaying buildings. Popoola ran the scheme from inside the inspection division itself: he selected the properties, awarded the contracts, inspected the work, certified completion, and released the money — and steered the bulk of it to two companies organized by his own sister and his fiancée. His sentencing was announced by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Missouri.

Background Information

Popoola was responsible for managing important aspects of two stabilization programs: Stable Communities STL, funded through federal American Rescue Plan Act money and intended for privately-owned properties, and Prop NS, intended for residential properties owned by the city’s Land Reutilization Authority and funded through general obligation bonds. Within those programs he identified properties for rehabilitation, developed the scope of work, sought and reviewed and awarded bids, inspected the purportedly completed work, and certified that the work had been done so funds could be disbursed to contractors. Every checkpoint in that pipeline was his to pass or fail.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Convicted and sentenced. Popoola pleaded guilty in June 2026 in U.S. District Court in St. Louis to three counts of wire fraud, and he was sentenced on November 3, 2026; the conviction and sentence are adjudicated facts.

Popoola steered 41 contracts to Farst Construction LLC, a company he helped organize with his sister — a nurse living in Texas with no background or experience in construction — and directed 50 contracts to Premier Finish Contractors LLC, a company he helped his fiancée organize. On multiple projects, both companies failed to perform the rehabilitation and stabilization work they were paid for, and Popoola falsely certified that the work had been completed completely and properly. He concealed his role in the companies from the city, and his sister and his fiancée — later his wife — concealed their connection to him. Assistant U.S. Attorney Hal Goldsmith wrote in a sentencing memo that Popoola “was so bold as to give 42% of the total funds disbursed under the City’s Stable Communities STL program to his sister’s and his wife’s companies.”

Popoola and his family members reaped $1,642,908 from the scheme. The stolen money financed residential mortgage payments, multiple vehicle purchases and repairs, travel, his September 2023 wedding in Hawaii, casino gambling, and dining and entertainment expenses. In the sentencing memo, Goldsmith wrote, “This is a case of greed, plain and simple,” saying Popoola “abused his longstanding and substantial position of trust with the City of St. Louis in order to enrich himself and his family members” and “destroyed two well-intentioned local and federal funded programs meant to stabilize decaying and debilitating properties within the City.” The owner of a building on Rowan Avenue wrote in a victim impact statement that the theft of $48,500 in repair funds left the building with “severe, unaddressed structural decay that was actively masked by fraudulent building inspection reports.”

Public Reaction and Consequences

The consequences rippled well past the stolen sum. St. Louis Mayor Cara Spencer said in a statement that the city may have to return millions of dollars in ARPA funds because of Popoola’s crimes, and that innocent contractors were harmed when the city froze payments during the investigation — a freeze that also halted other stabilization work, including on buildings damaged by the May 2025 tornado. FBI St. Louis Special Agent in Charge Chris Crocker said the damage “extends far beyond the theft of taxpayer money,” adding that when building inspectors compromise safety enforcement for personal gain, “they put entire communities and the lives of those residents at risk.” U.S. District Judge Zachary M. Bluestone imposed the six-year sentence and the repayment order.

Current Status

Popoola is sentenced to six years in prison with a restitution obligation of $1.64 million, repaying the money he and his family took from the two programs. The FBI investigated the case with substantial cooperation from the City of St. Louis Comptroller’s Office, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Hal Goldsmith prosecuted it. His family’s two companies — Farst Construction LLC and Premier Finish Contractors LLC — were the receiving ends of 91 contracts between them, and the case stands as the documented record of how the city’s stabilization money was diverted.

Impact on Their Career/Life

Popoola’s career as a city inspector ended in a federal conviction that dismantled two programs his job existed to serve. At 58, he begins a six-year prison term that will carry him past retirement age, and the restitution order converts the money he spent on a Hawaiian wedding, cars, and casino gambling into a debt owed to the public. The city, meanwhile, must absorb the possible loss of millions in federal grant money and the suspended repair work — including on tornado-damaged buildings — that his scheme took offline.

Sources

• U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of Missouri, “Former St. Louis Building Inspector Sentenced to 6 Years in Prison for $1.6 Million Fraud,” November 3, 2026. source