Robert Davis charged with stealing from Highland Park school district
Robert Davis, who was indicted on charges of federal program theft, faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted.
According to the indictment, between 2004 and 2010, Davis pocketed more than $125,000 from the Highland Park School District through two schemes in which he used cover companies to submit fake invoices to the school district for payment.
One of the schemes involved submitting false invoices for more than $380,000 for advertising on behalf of the school district, the indictment said. The other scheme involved invoices in excess of $49,000 for services and expenses relating to a Saturday educational program for district students.
In both schemes, the indictment said, Davis hid his involvement with the companies, whose names appeared on the ionvoices. He also concealed the fact that he took a substantial portion of the payments for his own use, the indictment said.
Davis declined comment pending a press conference this evening.
Attorney Ben Gonek, who represented Highland Park school board member Debra Humphrey in suit against Davis, said the indictment "is long overdue."
"It's refreshing when the government goes after such alleged corruption," he said.
"Stealing from children is bad," Gonek said. "And it's especially so when it's from a school district that's almost bankrupt."
He also noted that Davis fought a state intervention that he said could have uncovered the irregularities.
Davis’s attorney Carl Marlinga said that his client “strongly asserts his innocence. And he looks forward to clearing his name.”
"It is a misfortune that individuals are comfortable with stealing from the children of this city. We, as citizens, must not become comfortable or tolerate this greedy behavior," said Erick Martinez, special agent in charge of the Internal Revenue Service.
U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade warned that public corruption remains a high priority in her office.
"We are committed to uncovering all forms of public corruption, but stealing from the public is especially egregious when the victims are school children," McQuade said.
Added Detroit's FBI chief Andrew Arena, "Crimes against our children such as these are not only despicable but also a drain on the entire school system. This indictment should serve as a strong reminder we will vigorously pursue anyone who uses school funds as their personal ATM."
The case was investigated by the FBI-led Public Corruption Task Force and the IRS.
Today's indictment comes one year after the Free Press ran an in-depth article about Davis's ties to a controversial $400,000 radio ad campaign that was aimed at attracting students to the struggling Highland Park School district.
• Highland Park schools ad campaign probed (Adobe PDF)
The company that received the nearly $400,000 was Zenoco, a Macomb-County start-up company that was supposed to oversee the promotional advertising campaign.
But Zenoco, the Free Press reported, had no formal contract during its four-year run with Highland Park schools. And its services were never formally approved by the school board.
Yet under that setup, the distressed Highland Park Public Schools wrote nearly $400,000 in checks from 2007 to 2010 to Zenoco.
At the time, the district's attorney and other officials wondered what they got for their money.
Records reviewed by the Free Press showed that Davis – who at the time was a former school board president -- recommended Zenoco for the business, which was handled outside of normal contracting and review processes.
George Butler III, the district's lawyer, said school officials found no evidence that Zenoco developed the ad campaign as promised.
Butler ended up calling for a criminal investigation by the state attorney general. The FBI jumped in and raided Davis' home in search of financial records and information about Zenoco and its owner, court records show.
In August 2010, Davis agreed to repay $4,500 to the Highland Park School District as part of a settlement in Wayne County Circuit Court for submitting an inaccurate court judgment for legal fees. The settlement was announced before Wayne County Circuit Judge Robert Colombo Jr., who wanted to know how two conflicting court orders wound up on the record in a Freedom of Information lawsuit filed by Davis against the school board.
That case was dismissed in November 2009. One of the orders dismissed the case without providing fees; the other dismissed the case providing fees and costs of $4,500. Both documents were signed by Davis on behalf of his attorney and an attorney for the district, and had Colombo's stamped signature.
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