Kinloch Mayor Keith Conway Sentenced for Fraud, Embezzlement, and Witness Tampering

ST. LOUIS, MO—The United States Attorney’s Office announced today that Kinloch Mayor Keith Conway was sentenced to 21 months in prison, and ordered to pay restitution of $62,429, on charges of using Kinloch city funds to pay personal expenses, fund personal travel, and purchase a Florida vacation condominium timeshare; and attempting to influence Kinloch City Officials to provide false information to federal law enforcement about the criminal charges pending against him.

According to court documents, and statements made in court at the time of the plea, between January 2009 and March 31, 2011, Conway stole, diverted and embezzled city funds to pay for several personal Bahamas vacation cruises, airline tickets to Las Vegas and Ft. Lauderdale for himself and friends, the down payment and loan payments on a time share condominium in South Florida, personal credit card bills, personal federal income taxes, as well as Ameren electric bills for a city owned residence where he was living rent free. Further, following his original indictment on the fraud and embezzlement charges, and while on bond, Conway provided false information to Kinloch City Officials including several members of the Board of Aldermen relative to the criminal charges pending against him and urged those officials to provide false information about those charges contained in the original indictment. Conway was originally indicted on the fraud charges in May, 2011and was charged in a superseding indictment June 2, 2011 with the additional witness tampering charge.

“This case clearly demonstrates federal law enforcement’s commitment to root out public corruption no matter the size of a municipality,” said Special Agent in Charge Dennis L. Baker of the FBI St. Louis Division. “It doesn’t matter if the City of Kinloch only has a few hundred residents, they deserve honest public service as much as anyone else.”

Conway, 47, of Kinloch, MO, pled guilty in August to one felony count of wire fraud, one felony count of federal program funds theft and one felony count of witness tampering, and appeared today for sentencing before United States District Judge Rodney W. Sippel.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, St. Louis County Police Department Intelligence Unit, U.S. Department of Labor Office of Inspector General and the Department of Justice Office of Inspector General. Assistant U.S. Attorney Hal Goldsmith handled the case for the U.S. Attorney’s Office.