Closing Agency Owner Gets 57 Months For Illegally Dipping Into Escrow Account; Title Insurance Underwriter Left Holding The Bag On $258K Damages Tab

From the Office of the U.S. Attorney (Harrisburg, Pennsylvania):

• Peter J. Smith, United States Attorney for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, announced a Lancaster County woman was sentenced [] to 57 months incarceration following her conviction last September on charges she defrauded a local real estate settlement firm and a national real estate title insurance company out of more than $258,894.
• Following a three-day jury trial before U.S. District Court Judge William W. Caldwell in Harrisburg, Shawn Chambers-Galis, age 48, of Mt. Joy, Pennsylvania, was convicted of wire fraud.
• Testimony at the trial revealed that between 2005 and 2007 Chambers-Galis diverted more than $273,000 from the escrow accounts of Donegal Settlement Services, a real estate closing firm Chambers-Galis co-owned and operated in Jacobus, Pennsylvania, and Mt. Joy, and converted the funds to her own use. As a result, mortgages that should have been paid off by Donegal at real estate closings were not, in fact, paid off and the Commonwealth Land Title Company (“Land America”) had to eventually pay $258,894 to clear the titles to the properties.

For the U.S. Attorney press release, see Lancaster County woman sentenced for wire fraud related to local real estate settlement firm and national real estate title insurance company.