Grand Jury Indicts Quake Firm Official

The president of an engineering firm that performed work for Allstate Insurance Co. after the 1994 Northridge earthquake has been indicted by a federal grand jury in Los Angeles, officials said Friday.

LeAndre Drake Davis, 36, of San Jose, was named Thursday in a 21-count indictment that accuses him of five counts of money laundering, six counts of mail fraud and 10 counts of misappropriating insurance funds, U.S. Atty. Alejandro N. Mayorkas said.

Davis is scheduled to be arraigned on the federal charges Nov. 8.

Davis’ attorney, Edward M. Robinson, said, “I am not in a position to comment. I just received the indictment and I need time to review it.”

Davis was president of Shadowbrook Design Group, which was retained by Allstate to prepare engineering reports to assist the insurance company in adjusting claims for damage filed by policyholders.

Federal prosecutors allege that the reports Davis prepared contained false and misleading information. They say the documents were prepared with either no inspections or inadequate inspections of policyholders’ properties. Davis is also charged with two counts of mail fraud in relation to this charge.

Davis defrauded Allstate and some of the people who prepared the reports for Shadowbrook by submitting false and inflated claims for payment to Allstate, prosecutors allege.

After being paid by Allstate based on false and inflated claims, Shadowbrook did not pay some of its subcontractors for the work they had performed, prosecutors said. Davis is charged with four counts of mail fraud in connection with this allegation.

Additionally, the indictment alleges that Davis misappropriated $44,057 from Allstate. The five money laundering counts charge that Davis used the $24,000 in proceeds from mail fraud to fund the alleged schemes.

If convicted of all 21 counts, Davis faces a maximum sentence of 167 years in federal prison and $6.5 million in fines, prosecutors said.

The case is part of an ongoing investigation being conducted by a task force that includes the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the state departments of Insurance and Consumer Affairs.