最新杏吧原创

ST. LOUIS 鈥� When she moved into the Saum building at 1919 South Grand six months ago, Salinas Rangel immediately noticed the smell.

For weeks, it lingered.

Finally, Evette Townsend, the property manager for landlord STL CityWide, told Rangel and other seventh-floor residents that employees would be checking the apartments there to try and find the source. When Rangel returned from work that early June evening, the police were there. They had found a decomposing body in one of the units.

After that, Rangel complained about roaches throughout the building. She trudged up seven flights of stairs during the frequent elevator outages.

But she kept paying nearly $1,200 in monthly rent.

The final straw came last Saturday, when Rangel found a rat stuck in a trap. It was under a radiator, slowly roasting. She left that night.

鈥淭hese people are insane if they think they鈥檙e going to get another dollar out of me,鈥� Rangel said.

Rangel is considering her legal options now, and a lawsuit from her would be the latest in a growing number of legal actions piling up against one of the largest landlords in 最新杏吧原创 and its owners, brothers Vic Alston and Sid Chakraverty.

Another recent lawsuit accuses a CityWide employee of stealing rent and illegally shutting off utilities at a downtown loft building, while one alleges a roach infestation at a Central West End property. Another three tenants have recently settled lawsuits against Alston, Chakraverty and their companies.

Meanwhile, Alston and Chakraverty鈥檚 construction arm, Big Sur Construction, is facing over $3.3 million in construction liens filed this year against recent apartment developments in University City and Kansas City.

The liens and lawsuits are on top of federal criminal fraud charges unsealed in September, and they put further financial pressure on an enterprise that owns and manages an estimated 2,000 apartments in the 最新杏吧原创 area. The criminal charges against Alston, Chakraverty and their chief financial officer, Shijing 鈥淧oppy鈥� Cao, accuse the trio of defrauding 最新杏吧原创鈥� minority hiring requirements for developers who receive construction incentives. All three have pleaded not guilty.

The tenants filing recent lawsuits are being represented by Al Johnson, a former 最新杏吧原创 County prosecutor and private practice attorney who now heads nonprofit legal clinic New Covenant Legal Services. His clients鈥� claims echo complaints that tenants of the brothers鈥� properties have been voicing for years.

鈥淯nder the direction of Alston and Chakraverty, CityWide has devised a strategy of purchasing apartment buildings in the city of 最新杏吧原创 and engaging in a pattern of deferred maintenance,鈥� Johnson wrote in one of the recent lawsuits. 鈥淭hey use fraud, deception, and bait-and-switch tactics to attract tenants and then engage in aggressive legal tactics when tenants balk at paying the exorbitant rents in buildings that are frequently deficient.鈥�

Stolen rent, illegal utility shutoff

Megan O鈥橠onnell and Ryuichi Yamamoto sued in October over their experience in the ArtLofts at 1531 Washington Avenue. In addition to the brothers, the couple named Townsend, the CityWide property manager, and Jose Garcia, another manager, as defendants.

In their lawsuit, the couple accuse Garcia of stealing their $1,160 August rent check and then illegally shutting off their electricity.

A few days after depositing a check in a drop box, someone from CityWide informed O鈥橠onnell and Yamamoto their rent was late. O鈥橠onnell went to her bank and discovered that Garcia had cashed the check in his name. She told Garcia鈥檚 supervisor, Townsend, who tried to 鈥渇abricate a story that would somehow exonerate鈥� Garcia, according to the lawsuit.

Cao, the CityWide accountant who was indicted for fraud along with Chakraverty and Alston, was also named as a defendant in the lawsuit. She is accused of contacting O鈥橠onnell and Yamamoto at Alston and Chakraverty鈥檚 direction to try and 鈥渃over up systematic, illegal goings-on at CityWide.鈥�

Garcia later promised to credit the check to the couple鈥檚 August rent, but he never did, according to the suit. On top of that, both Townsend and Cao told them they still had to pay another $1,160 for that month鈥檚 rent.

According to the lawsuit, O鈥橠onnell and Yamamoto had already negotiated with Garcia a one-month extension to their lease through September. But on Aug. 23, four days before their original lease expired, Townsend told them CityWide would not honor the extension. They had to be out in less than a week.

The couple couldn鈥檛 find a new place that quickly, so they remained in the unit into September.

In retaliation, Garcia shut off their electricity, even though O鈥橠onnell and Yamamoto pay Ameren directly for electricity, their lawsuit says.

鈥淭his refusal to provide electricity is neither legal nor isolated,鈥� their suit says. 鈥淩ather, Defendants systematically shut off access to electricity for apartments they claim to be behind in past-due rent or otherwise in alleged violation of the lease agreement to extort rent and enforce compliance.鈥�

The couple then ran extension cords under their door to power appliances, but CityWide employees cut them. One night, Garcia entered their apartment uninvited to 鈥渧erbally harass plaintiffs and direct them to vacate the apartment early,鈥� the lawsuit says.

Meanwhile, CityWide employees 鈥渨ere providing slanderous and/or libelous tenant references鈥� about O鈥橠onnell and Yamamoto, including that they had not paid their August rent, their lawsuit says. That made it difficult to find a new landlord willing to take them.

Garcia, reached by phone, hung up when a reporter asked him about the utility shutoffs. Townsend did not respond to a request for comment.

In addition, two lawsuits accuse Alston and Chakraverty through their companies of renting out apartments without a state real estate license.

The Missouri Real Estate Commission in September 2023 sued CityWide for renting properties without a real estate broker鈥檚 license and asked the courts for an injunction to stop CityWide from continuing to rent out the apartments.

But the state has not taken any action in the litigation since filing the lawsuit, and it鈥檚 unclear whether it is even still pursuing the matter. Missouri Real Estate Commission Executive Director Brittany Tomblinson and the division鈥檚 enforcement manager, Lisa Brush, did not respond to a request for comment.

Another recent lawsuit filed by Catheryn Bolick alleges a rodent infestation in CityWide鈥檚 Hampden Hall on McPherson Avenue, where she paid nearly $1,400 a month for rent. She also said the elevators were routinely broken.

Three other tenants recently settled lawsuits against the brothers鈥� companies. A lawsuit filed by Amdiel Clement last year claimed there was a roach infestation in CityWide鈥檚 Maryland Lofts at 4340 Maryland Ave. The case settled in July.

In another case, one of CityWide鈥檚 companies, Central PM LLC, sued Martez Mayo for past due rent in the ArtLofts. Mayo agreed to a deal in court that gave him until September to pay CityWide $6,000 in past due rent and fees. But on Aug. 15, the landlords cut off his electricity, according to a countersuit Mayo filed.

Ameren told Mayo they had not deactivated his electricity. When Mayo confronted Garcia about the shutoff, Garcia told him the landlord would only send a technician after he had paid his past-due rent, even though the settlement in his rent case gave Mayo until September. Central PM settled the case last week.

And another lawsuit from Demarkus Turner claimed CityWide employee Kyle Rhine told him he had to purchase a renter鈥檚 insurance policy from Century-National Insurance Company when he moved into the Tanjiers apartments at 5522 Delmar Boulevard.

After a storm caused water damage in his apartment, Turner filed a claim but was denied. The lawsuit alleges that Rhine was actually an agent for Century in addition to CityWide.

鈥淯nknown to plaintiff, there was a pre-existing agreement between the CityWide defendants Tanjiers, CityWide, and defendant Century to force and/or steer clients to Century,鈥� Turner鈥檚 lawsuit says. 鈥淚n turn, Century would sell an insurance policy to unsuspecting tenants in the Tanjiers apartments that provided coverage only to the CityWide defendants but little or no coverage to tenants, like plaintiff Turner.鈥�

Rhine hung up when reached by a reporter. The lawsuit settled in September.

, an attorney for Alston and Chakraverty鈥檚 companies and employees in the tenant lawsuits, did not respond to requests for comment.

In a statement, Johnson, the New Covenant attorney, said the number of large landlords 鈥渆ngaging in various patterns of tenant abuse鈥� has increased over the last five years.

鈥淲e can file lawsuits all day, but the situation will only improve when we see some more aggressive enforcement by local and state officials of tenants鈥� rights,鈥� he wrote.

Plead the Fifth

Meanwhile, mechanics liens have been piling up against Alston and Chakraverty鈥檚 construction arm, Big Sur. At least $1.4 million in liens have been filed against the McKenzie a 251-unit apartment building recently constructed at Delmar Boulevard and Interstate 170 in University City. Another $1.9 million have been filed in Jackson County against Lux Living鈥檚 recent projects in Kansas City.

Ira Berkowitz, Alston and Chakraverty鈥檚 longtime attorney, did not respond to questions about whether Big Sur still had the capacity to pay its contractors.

And in a long-running legal dispute with loft owners at the Ely Walker loft building downtown, where Alston, Chakraverty and Cao control the condo board, a 最新杏吧原创 judge last week ordered Chakraverty to sit for a deposition. Chakraverty had asked for a protective order to limit plaintiffs鈥� attorneys from asking about anything that could impact the federal criminal charges against him.

Judge Joseph Whyte ruled that if Chakraverty was worried about implicating himself in the criminal case, he could invoke the Fifth Amendment.