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ST. LOUIS — Federal authorities have subpoenaed a city agency for records related to developers Vic Alston and Sid Chakraverty — the brothers behind Lux Living, STL Citywide and Asprient Properties.

The request for records was sent to the St. Louis Development Corporation, people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.

It’s unclear exactly what records federal investigators sought from SLDC or when the subpoena was delivered.

But Alston and Chakraverty’s companies have obtained property tax abatement and other development incentives from the office for numerous projects over the years.

The brothers’ attorney, Ira Berkowitz, couldn’t immediately be reached for comment regarding the subpoena, nor could Alston.

But Chakraverty said Wednesday: “Talk to Ira, I don’t know anything about it.�

A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s office declined to confirm or deny the existence of an investigation.

Lux Living, along with Alston and Chakraverty’s other companies, own hundreds of apartment units across the region and are one of the largest and most active multifamily developers in St. Louis. The brothers are currently building apartments in University City and eyeing projects in Crestwood, St. Charles and Kansas City.

But tenants at the brothers’ properties have complained for years about unresponsive management and deferred maintenance at their properties. Last year, the landlords settled a class-action lawsuit over a failure to refund security deposits.

And, after the brothers sold a tax-abated DeBaliviere Place apartment building for a windfall, city officials instituted new provisions in 2020 to claw back some tax incentives.

As the brothers grew larger, so did the controversies. They used a defunct neighborhood association in DeBaliviere Place to sue a competing developer, delaying that project by months while they opened their own multifamily building across the street and began leasing it. They subpoenaed a tenant who spoke to the Post-Dispatch about problems in his building.

They control the condo board at the downtown Ely Walker Lofts, which condo owners and residents say has been allowed to fall into disrepair and was tagged as a nuisance by city officials after a high-profile shooting last year.

And last summer, a former Lux employee, Chris Stritzel, said they had considered rigging the buildings they own on South Kingshighway to collapse so that they could get around city ordinances protecting historic structures from demolition. Attorneys for the brothers vehemently denied the accusation.

Stritzel last month said in an online post that indictments were near in “the development world.�

He told the Post-Dispatch that FBI agents showed up at his house this year, interviewed him and asked whether he saw “anything wrong going on besides what the Post reported about Kingshighway.� He never heard from the agents again, he said, but he is aware that other former employees were questioned.

Elkin Kistner, an attorney who represents condo owners in their long-running lawsuit against the Ely Walker Lofts condo board and the Alston company that controls it, said he has heard from people close to the case that a federal investigation is underway.

He said he had also heard about the existence of the subpoena to the city.

Alston and Chakraverty grew up in St. Louis County and their family has owned real estate in the region for years. Before Alston launched Lux Living with Chakraverty, he worked at California-based computer network provider Ixia, becoming its CEO in 2012.

But he resigned a year later after an that he misstated his age, early employment history and academic credentials, falsely claiming bachelor’s and master’s degrees in computer science from Stanford University.

Later, a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation by directing company employees to recognize sales revenues earlier than allowed under accounting standards. Alston concealed the activity from the company’s auditors, the SEC found.

In 2017, Alston, without admitting or denying the SEC’s findings, agreed to a $100,000 penalty and a five-year ban from serving as an officer or director of public companies.

Last month, the brothers put their downtown properties up for sale.

Austin Huguelet of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.