The St. Louis city building inspector under investigation for his ties to a construction company that’s been paid $1 million by the city also has ties to a second contractor active in the same program. The second company, which has been paid $1.35 million by the city, appears to be owned by the inspector’s wife, government records show.
Both contractors have been paid with federal American Rescue Plan Act dollars through two city programs: The Building Stabilization Program and the Privately-Owned Property Stabilization Program. And each company is linked to a woman married at some point to building inspection supervisor Adebanjo “Banjo” Popoola—one of two city staffers supervising the programs.
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Premier Finish Contractors was first organized in Florissant in 2021 by a woman named Tanya Garrett, state records show. Last year, the company changed its name and moved its address to the city, and Garrett was listed as its manager in addition to its organizer and registered agent. The city has paid the company $1.359 million for work from October 2023 through May 2024, according to city records, making it the single biggest recipient of the two city programs.
St. Louis County property records show that Garrett purchased a home in Wildwood with Popoola in September 2023. Sales records indicate that the two were married at that time.
And as Banjo Popoola acknowledged to SLM yesterday, a company registered to the Maryland Heights home of his ex-wife Joy is one of the programs’ other big recipients. That company, Farst Construction, has earned $1,017,575 from May 2023 to May 2024. He suggested that its registration to his ex’s address may have been “a coincidence.”
Joy Popoola tells SLM she knows nothing about Farst other than mail for it kept coming to her home. The company’s registered agent, Feyiseye Osiki, appears to be a nurse practitioner living in Texas. She did not respond to an email seeking comment yesterday, but previously defended the company’s work.
The city swiftly placed Banjo Popoola under investigation yesterday in response to SLM’s questions about his ties to Farst. That investigation continues. Popoola has not responded to our messages seeking comment since that time. Garrett also did not respond to our messages earlier today.
The four-bedroom, 2.5-bath Wildwood residence that Garrett and Popoola own together sits on a leafy block, the house decorated with Christmas lights and an inflatable snowman. Four vehicles, one without a license plate, were all parked on the driveway this morning. A man who answered the front door with a gun at his side said that no one by the name of Tanya Garrett lives there.
A few minutes later, a man emerged from the house and covered the purple Jeep in the driveway with a black tarp.
