Escrow Company Owner Gets Four Years For Pocketing $540K+ In Deposits On Real Estate Transactions & Refusing To Give Back The Cash After Pending Deals Fell Through

In Orange County, California, MyNewsLA.com reports:

• A 40-year-old Yorba Linda real estate escrow con man is going to prison for four years for defrauding victims of more than $540,000 in what a prosecutor called an unsophisticated scheme.
  
  Andres Oman Pacheco pleaded guilty and was immediately sentenced to the prison term, according to Senior Deputy District Attorney George McFetridge. There were six victims, he said.
  
  “It’s not the most sophisticated of crimes,” McFetridge said.
  
  The victims put money on deposit to buy property and when the deals fell through Pacheco would not refund the money, McFetridge said.
  
  Pacheco owned Santa Ana-based Franklin Equity Corporation/Signature Escrow, McFetridge said.
  
  The worst loss for a victim was $185,000, McFetridge said. The defendant issued a refund check to one client, but it bounced, McFetridge said.
  
  The properties that the victims were trying to acquire were in Inglewood, Victorville, Moreno Valley and Santa Ana, McFetridge said.
  
  Pacheco pleaded guilty [] to two counts of grand theft, both felonies, and admitted a sentencing enhancement allegation for aggravated white collar crime exceeding $500,000. Multiple other felony charges were dismissed in the plea deal, according to court records.

Source: Real estate escrow fraud: Prison for unsophisticated scheme.