Title Insurance Around the Country

Once Again, the news for the Title Insurance Industry is not good. Todays news around the country today reads like a bad novel for custodians of enormous sums of mortgage money.

FORT WAYNE, INDIANA According to terms of a plea agreement, Garretson must transfer any interest he has in any bank accounts in his name toward making restitution, and he must provide a complete accounting of his assets to the Indiana Secretary of State’s Securities Division and the Indiana Department of Insurance.  More information at the Journal Gazette.

ANNAPOLIS, MD Mortgage broker, David Wehrs, moonlighted for the past several years as a financial adviser misappropriated more than $2.3 million of his clients’ money to buy and sell stocks for his own personal gain, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the Securities and Exchange Commission. When Wehrs ran out of money, he pulled $630,611 from his related escrow account at Maryland Title, prosecutors said. The money was supposed to be used to pay down individual mortgages. Chicago Title, Wehrs’ title insurance company, ultimately paid off the escrow debt at no cost to the homeowners, prosecutors said.  See full article here at HometownAnnapolis paper.

ATLANTA, GEORGIA – Trent Edward Wright admits that while acting as closing attorney for a number of loans, he prepared documentation falsely showing that the loans were secured by a first lien position in property owned by the borrower, when in fact he knew that the borrower did not have clear title and that the lenders were not receiving a first lien position security interest. He also issued false title insurance opinions and policies in connection with these loans. See full info at leagle.com