ST. LOUIS – The State of Missouri is now looking into a whistleblower complaint regarding fears of potential fraud in a City of St. Louis pandemic relief program.

Democratic St. Louis Rep. Steve Butz is the so-called whistleblower. He’s become so concerned with the red flags raised about the possibility of fraud with a grant program—that’s supposed to help revitalize struggling areas of north St. Louis—that he’s gone to the staff of the Missouri State Auditor.

“With this amount of smoke, we’ve got to know where the truth lies,” Butz said of the troubled program.

He said the list of grants awarding more than $33 million in federal American Rescue Plan (ARPA) funds is putting off more smoke now—it appears that even the businesses and non-profits that were denied grants got $12,500 just for applying.

“We’re going to give them all $12,500 for the trouble of having completed the grant work, which is never the way grants were ever awarded as far as I’m aware,” he said. “It certainly sounds like ‘We’ll give everybody some money, and hopefully it’ll make everybody happy.’”

A spokesman for Missouri Auditor, Scott Fitzpatrick, told FOX 2, “We have received information we are treating as an official whistleblower complaint. We are reviewing now and then will decide the next step to take.”

The review will likely include a look at things, like a life skills school getting $50,000 and a new Mississippi River Museum getting $25,000. Neither building listed in the grant applications...

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