ST. LOUIS 鈥 Clad in a white shirt and striped red tie, Howard Hughes III offers a roomful of children an inspiring message about entrepreneurship and people who pull themselves out of poverty.
鈥淭hese are some successful people in their careers and in their lives,鈥 he says on a video posted prominently on the website of . 鈥淎nd they all grew up in similar neighborhoods like you. They all grew up in single-family households like you. They didn鈥檛 have the resources. Their parents weren鈥檛 rich. Whatever you鈥檙e dealing with right now, I want you to figure it out. You have everything you need inside of you.鈥
As rousing music builds in the background, the undated video cuts to a scene outside the now-closed Clay Elementary School, where Hughes shows off his ride: a 2017 neon yellow Mercedes-Benz G550 Wagon 4X4 Squared 鈥 a luxury SUV with a base price topping $225,000.
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The kids love it, climbing into the driver鈥檚 seat and dancing in the vehicle with the sunroof open.
Two months ago, that Mercedes showed up in the federal indictment of Connie Bobo, a St. Charles woman accused of defrauding a federal child nutrition program out of $11 million and using the money to buy real estate and luxury goods.
Bobo, who ran the nonprofit and claimed about $21 million in federal meal reimbursements from 2019 through 2022, was charged in October with wire fraud, identify theft and obstruction of an official proceeding. The Post-Dispatch first reported her nonprofit鈥檚 large federal reimbursements and some of her real estate purchases in November 2022.
But the indictment revealed another character in Bobo鈥檚 orbit 鈥 a 鈥渞omantic partner鈥 who prosecutors say accepted $1.4 million in stolen food program money from Bobo, using nearly $212,000 to buy the Mercedes SUV.
While the indictment identifies Bobo鈥檚 partner only as 鈥淗.H.,鈥 other public records confirm it鈥檚 Hughes. Hughes hasn鈥檛 been charged with a crime, but the U.S. Attorney鈥檚 office lists the luxury vehicle among the property 鈥 mostly homes and commercial real estate Bobo purchased 鈥 that it planned to seize as compensation for the food program fraud.
The luxury SUV was a perfect prop for Hughes鈥 carefully curated image as a successful entrepreneur, business coach, 鈥渂est-selling鈥 author, real estate developer and 鈥渉igh net worth wealth manager.鈥
But lawsuits scattered through the courts indicate a different reality: a business dispute, a failed restaurant and a 2022 eviction from a small, $609-per-month apartment in O鈥橣allon, Missouri.
There鈥檚 no indication of any of that on Hughes鈥 websites and social media accounts. Instead, he highlights his work speaking to kids about entrepreneurship and says he worked with St. 亚洲无码 Public Schools on a student essay contest in 2019. More recently, he claimed he was working with developers in St. 亚洲无码 and had plans for large developments in East St. 亚洲无码, as well as in Michigan.
鈥淵ou never buy luxury cars, brand new cars, until you have an investment vehicle that can pay for that for you,鈥 he said in a video offering business advice posted on social media. 鈥淚 would never buy a car and spend my own money to buy that car.鈥
Hughes did not return multiple phone and email messages. He couldn鈥檛 be reached at any of his listed addresses. The Mercedes wasn鈥檛 there either.
The man from Kalamazoo
Hughes came to Missouri in 2009 to attend Lincoln University in Jefferson City, according to his online profile and He grew up on the north side of Kalamazoo, Michigan, he said in that interview, describing himself as a 鈥渢roubled youth鈥 from a 鈥渂roken home.鈥 He only scored 13 points out of a possible 36 on the ACT, he said, and was suspended from school.
鈥淚n this area there鈥檚 not a lot of resources available to people, that we knew about, at least,鈥 Hughes said. 鈥淢aking those resources accessible was always a priority to me. I just didn鈥檛 know what was available to us to be able to achieve more.鈥
Things began to turn around when he went to college 鈥 the first time, he said, he had left Michigan. He got good grades and played football.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 when things kind of got started for me,鈥 he said in the interview.
STL TV was talking to Hughes about his book and his work promoting entrepreneurship to young people. Specifically, he was promoting an essay contest at the time, one that he said St. 亚洲无码 Public Schools had partnered with him on. The winners were to be announced at SLPS headquarters downtown, according to the segment.
鈥淚 want to push entrepreneurship extremely hard,鈥 Hughes said. 鈥淭he reason why I want to do that is because I want the youth to be able to know that they can create tables and allow other people to come up and have a seat.鈥
In addition to the 2019 essay contest, his website includes a picture of him speaking at the Wilkinson Early Childhood Center, another SLPS school. Plus, there鈥檚 the video of him outside Clay Elementary showing off the Mercedes.
But that video, though posted just a few months ago, is dated. SLPS closed Clay in the summer of 2021, and a school district spokesman said the district was 鈥渦nable to locate any record of Mr. Hughes ever having a formal relationship with the District as a whole.鈥
鈥淔urther, we can鈥檛 find any indication he鈥檚 had any involvement with any of our more than 60 schools in several years,鈥 SLPS spokesman George Sells said.
鈥業 don鈥檛 see Howard any longer鈥
Search online for 鈥淗oward Hughes Consulting鈥 and a Sunset Hills office building address pops up. It鈥檚 the same address where Hughes says on his LinkedIn page he began working for a business brokerage after he graduated from Lincoln.
An employee in the Sunset Hills office said in December he recalled when Hughes worked for a business brokerage that used to lease space in the building, but it had been several years since he last saw him.
Since 2017, Hughes has also been a licensed accident, health and sickness insurance producer in Missouri. It鈥檚 unclear if he uses the license.
Online, he mostly talks about real estate and market investments and his work mentoring and buying and selling businesses. His A one-hour financial literacy course costs the same.
Public records show Hughes, 33, worked, at least for a time, with Bobo, 44. In October 2021, he incorporated Howard Hughes Trucking and Construction with her, listing its address as the $975,000 home on Spring Mill Creek Road in St. Charles that Bobo used her nonprofit to purchase.
Bobo is listed as a contact for the now-dissolved Howard Hughes Foundation and for a company, HHIII Eats LLC, Hughes used to buy Cappuccino鈥檚, a now closed restaurant in an O鈥橣allon shopping center, in March 2022.
And on the Amazon webpage where Hughes鈥 2018 book, 鈥,鈥 is for sale, the only review is a glowing one from Bobo.
鈥淗oward is a genius at what he does,鈥 she wrote in March 2021, when her nonprofit was pulling in over $1 million a month in federal food aid money. 鈥淭his was one of the easiest books I鈥檝e read yet packed with so much helpful information. He truly demonstrates his passion for business development and helping entrepreneurs succeed in this book!鈥
How he and Bobo crossed paths isn鈥檛 entirely clear. She and her attorney didn鈥檛 respond to requests for comment.
Debra Irvin, a construction consultant Bobo hired after spending $2.2 million buying the empty Bridgeton Circuit City building on Natural Bridge Road near Interstate 270, said she remembers Bobo mentioning Hughes. Irvin didn鈥檛 work for Bobo long after she grew skeptical of the feasibility of Bobo鈥檚 plans to rehab the large commercial building.
But early on, around February 2022, Irvin, a former Berkeley city manager, arranged a meeting with Bridgeton Mayor Terry Briggs and Bobo.
At the meeting, Bobo mentioned she had a friend, 鈥淗oward,鈥 and said she had already given him $800,000 for 鈥渃onsulting and investments,鈥 Irvin recalled. But then Bobo said she had a new construction manager, Lozell Stiles.
鈥淪he said, 鈥業 don鈥檛 see Howard any longer,鈥欌 Irvin remembers. 鈥溾楳r. Stiles is taking over.鈥欌
The project never came together. And the government says it plans to seize the former Circuit City building.
鈥楽肠补尘尘别谤蝉鈥
Hughes appears to have started having money problems following some major purchases in early 2022.
In March of that year, he bought Cappuccino鈥檚, the O鈥橣allon restaurant, from Wendy and Lewis Meyerson. But only a few months later he stopped paying rent and the landlord, a company tied to Rams owner Stan Kroenke鈥檚 real estate empire, sued him. The landlord and the Meyersons eventually won judgments against him.
To recoup their money, Kroenke鈥檚 lawyers set out looking for the 2017 Mercedes SUV. It was the only one of several vehicles registered to Hughes, including two other Mercedes sedans, that didn鈥檛 have a lien on it. The St. Charles County Sheriff鈥檚 Department, assigned by the court to find the car, couldn鈥檛 find it when they were scoping out his O鈥橣allon apartment in the late summer and early fall.
Meanwhile, Hughes was dealing with other problems. According to court filings, he spent nearly $200,000 in January 2022 on two Peterbilt semi trucks for his Howard Hughes Trucking and Construction, the company he started with Bobo in October 2021.
Then he went into business with another woman with whom he was having a relationship. That woman, D鈥橝nn McIntyre, who owned a shoe store in the Delmar Loop and a home health care business, sued Hughes in May 2023.
McIntyre and her husband alleged Hughes defamed them in online postings by calling them 鈥渟cammers鈥 and claiming they stole his semi trucks. McIntyre said in court documents that Hughes had gifted the trucks to her, and she retitled them under her company, Billions Logistics. She and Hughes were in a relationship between October 2021 and May 2023, according to her lawsuit. Hughes only began posting the claims about her stealing the trucks when she broke off their relationship and returned to her husband, the lawsuit says. McIntyre couldn鈥檛 be reached for comment.
In his own lawsuit, filed shortly after McIntyre鈥檚, Hughes alleges McIntyre had asked to borrow the trucks in July 2022 for Billions Logistics, which Hughes said he was mentoring. The next month, he asked for the trucks back, but McIntyre told him they were hers now and he could repurchase them for $70,000, according to his lawsuit.
Hughes claimed he lost out on a $1.8 million contract with an East St. 亚洲无码 company, Zade Civil Construction and Trucking, because he couldn鈥檛 get the trucks back.
Zade Civil Construction and Trucking鈥檚 address is the same one that Hughes now lists for his consulting business. And Zade, owned by former University of Illinois and NFL football player Dana Howard, was also involved in Bobo鈥檚 Bridgeton project in late 2021, according to city building permit applications.
Zade鈥檚 owner, Howard, didn鈥檛 respond to messages seeking comment. A receptionist at the office on Martin Luther King Drive in East St. 亚洲无码 said Hughes comes in occasionally to meet with Howard but that she hadn鈥檛 seen him in a while.
鈥楩rontin鈥 and fakin鈥欌
Hughes listed the Zade address in an undated press release on his website announcing he had hired a chief operating officer for his consulting business: Madam Khadijah Tou Tou, who also has an online persona offering motivational speaking and life coaching services.
Tou Tou, in a brief phone conversation last month, said she was a teacher in addition to her work with Hughes, who she called 鈥渁bsolutely wonderful.鈥
鈥淗oward is a beacon of the community and he鈥檚 just, he鈥檚 a person where if you are broken or torn down, that鈥檚 going to be the person that helps, definitely helps build you up,鈥 she said.
She suddenly ended the phone call with the Post-Dispatch, saying she would call back. She didn鈥檛, and could not be reached for further comment.
Hughes has mostly stopped posting new content on his website and social media pages since Bobo鈥檚 indictment was unsealed in late October. In August, he posted a picture of the Mercedes in the Hyde Park neighborhood of north St. 亚洲无码.
鈥淲e all have the same 24 hours in a day,鈥 he wrote. 鈥淲hat I do with mine has EARNED me this. You see the drip, the luxury cars, the clothes, the swag, that鈥檚 not what made me. That鈥檚 what鈥檚 on me, not what鈥檚 in me.鈥
鈥淚 do this for God鈥檚 glory and to show you that you can do anything when you believe and know it鈥檚 possible for you too,鈥 he continued.
Back in March, in a video posted to YouTube, Hughes interviewed 鈥淔reeway Ricky鈥 Ross, a major player in the Los Angeles cocaine trade in the 鈥80s and 鈥90s who was eventually sentenced for his role leading a national drug trafficking empire. After teaching himself to read in prison and completing his sentence, Ross has restyled himself as a prison reform activist and entrepreneur.
鈥淭he thing about life is, life is like a boomerang,鈥 Ross told Hughes in the interview. 鈥淲hatever you throw out, it comes back to you. So, you know if you running around, and you frontin鈥 and fakin鈥 it trying to make everyone think you up on it when you really ain鈥檛, that鈥檚 what鈥檚 going to come back to you, fakin鈥 and shakin鈥.鈥