Massachusetts Attorney / Escrow Agent Pockets Loan Proceeds Meant For Lienholders

The Worcester Telegram & Gazette News reports that a guilty plea to income tax evasion and two counts of wire fraud was entered in a Boston Federal Court by disbarred attorney Alan Mason, 61, who operated Alan Mason Legal Services Inc. in Worcester.

It is alleged by prosecutors that Mason defrauded at least 10 lenders and Stewart Title, a real estate title insurance company, of more than $6.2 million between June 2001 and June 2006 while acting as an escrow agent for real estate transactions. Despite the plea agreement, Mr. Mason disputes that he received more than $1 million from the fraud or that it involved 10 or more victims.

Allegedly, some of the loan proceeds from real estate transactions that were intended to pay previous lien holders of properties was pocketed by Mason, leaving Stewart Title, for which Mr. Mason was an agent, on the hook for the unpaid liens requiring payment to cure the defective titles to the properties. For more, see Lawyer admits to tax evasion (Fraud counts included in plea).

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