The Department of Justice again insisted that U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi had no hand in dropping another case against one of her brother Brad Bondi’s clients facing felony wire fraud charges.
ABC News reported that Missouri federal prosecutors this week agreed to voluntarily dismiss an indictment against Sid Chakraverty, a property developer represented by Brad, co-chair of the Investigations and White Collar Defense practice at Paul Hastings.
In 2024, Biden administration prosecutors accused Chakraverty of lying about hiring women- and minority-owned subcontractors on a housing development allegedly to secure a favorable tax incentive.
However, on Wednesday, Thomas Albus, the Trump appointed U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri, filed court papers informing the judge overseeing the case that the “defendants have agreed to make restitution of the taxes” and that it is therefore “prudent for the government to end this criminal prosecution.”
Albus based the decision to drop charges against Chakraverty on a department-wide directive to no longer prosecute cases accused of violating “race- and sex-based presumptions like the [disadvantaged business enterprise] program.”
A DOJ spokesperson told ABC News that the decision to drop the charges was made “made through proper channels and the Attorney General had no role in it.”
The dropping of charges against Chakraverty marks the second time in less than a month that Brad was able to clinch a favorable result for one of his clients.
Former Florida House Rep. Carolina Amesty was facing up to 20 years in prison for two counts of theft of government property related to COVID-19 relief funds when the DOJ U-turned on pursuing charges.
A spokesperson for Chakraverty credited Brad— who joined the case in July 2025, according to the court docket—for his “wisdom and integrity” and insisted that he had been working on the case since before the 2024 election.
The spokesperson is also representing Chakraverty’s alleged co-conspirator Victor Alston.
“[Sid and Vic] credit the wisdom and integrity of their counsel, especially Brad Bondi, Renato Mariotti, and Jeff Jensen, who righteously and compellingly made clear that this case should never have been brought and that it could not withstand the scrutiny of either a jury of St. Louisans or the jurists of the federal courts,” said James McCarthy in a statement to ABC News. “That was clear when, just two days after the team filed its motion to dismiss, the City of St. Louis suspended the untenable and unconstitutional policy that formed the entire basis of the unjust charges against Sid and Vic.”
In June, Brad suffered a landslide loss in his bid to lead the Washington D.C. Bar, which 90% of its 38,000 members vote in favor of Brad’s opponent Diane Seltzer to lead the association as president.
The Daily Beast has contacted Brad Bondi, the DOJ and Pam Bondi’s office for comment on potential conflicts of interests in the cases.
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