A federal grand jury in St. Louis has indicted former Aldi executive Louis Ross and a local general contractor on nine counts of fraud relating to the construction of Aldi grocery stores in Illinois and Missouri.
The 62-year-old Ross, Aldi’s former Regional Director of Real Estate at the company’s O’Fallon, MO divisional office, and 71-year-old Donald Schniers, the owner of C. Juengel Company, were both charged with one count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, four counts of mail fraud and four counts of wire fraud.
According to court documents, Schniers, through C. Juengel, provided general contracting services to Aldi in connection with the construction and renovation of Aldi stores under Ross’ purview.
Ross is accused of having created fake bidding competitions using the names of other regional construction companies. Using these fictitious high bids from competing construction firms, Ross and Schniers ensured that C. Juengel was the lowest bidder on the projects and was ultimately awarded the contracts.
The indictment charges that Schniers paid Ross monthly kickbacks in exchange for the receipt of the Aldi contracts. Over a four-year period, Ross allegedly received $554,000 in kickbacks in the form of checks drawn on C. Juengel’s bank account.
Additionally, the indictment alleges that Ross also received thousands of dollars in kickbacks from another individual for the exclusive right to serve as the civil engineer on all of Aldi’s new construction and renovation projects in the Missouri division.
Ross and Schniers are scheduled to appear in federal court in St. Louis for their arraignments on June 10. Each of the counts in the indictment carries a maximum term of 20 years in prison.