Sticky-Fingered Closing Agent Gets 12 Yrs, Agrees To Indemnify Title Insurer Left Holding Bag In $3.8M+ Escrow Account Ripoff Affecting 11 Home Buyers

From the Office of the New Jersey Attorney General:

• Attorney General Paula T. Dow and Criminal Justice Director Stephen J. Taylor announced that the owner of a title company in Red Bank was sentenced to prison [last week] for stealing $3.8 million in loan proceeds intended for payment of mortgage balances and other closing costs.

• According to Director Taylor, Ronald P. Mas Jr., 35, of Red Bank, a mortgage broker, settlement agent and owner of Olde Gotham Title and Settlement Services LLC in Red Bank, was sentenced to 12 years in state prison. [...] He executed a consent judgment to pay full restitution of $3,841,616 to the title company that insured the mortgages. [...] Mas pleaded guilty on Aug. 26, 2010 to an accusation charging him with second-degree money laundering and second-degree theft by failure to make required disposition of property received.(1)

• He admitted that between April 2009 and February 2010, he stole $3,841,616 that he received from various mortgage lenders for real estate closings on behalf of 11 home buyers across New Jersey.

***

• The state investigation revealed that Mas diverted loan proceeds into his Ameritrade account. Instead of paying off the client’s old mortgage, Mas would make monthly mortgage payments and invest the balance of the loan proceeds into the Ameritrade account. Mas made monthly payments on some mortgages using funds from new loans provided for clients. At the end of February 2010, Mas had a total loss of over $3.4 million in his Ameritrade account. As a result, 11 mortgages were not paid.

For the NJ AG press release, see Red Bank Title Company Owner Sentenced to State Prison for Stealing $3.8 Million in Closing Funds to Play Stock Market.

(1) “Home buyers, lenders and title insurers must be able to rely on title agents, who are routinely entrusted with hundreds of thousands of dollars in closing funds,” said Attorney General Dow. “When such agents violate their fiduciary duty and steal from clients, as this defendant did, they should face a stiff sentence.”