Brooklyn Feds Charge Title Agency Owner With Ripping Off $1.7M In Escrow Account Funds, Failing To Record Mortgages & Deeds In Real Estate Deals

From the Office of the U.S. Attorney (Brooklyn, New York):

• [Last week] in federal court in Brooklyn, Jonathan Boxman, an owner and operator of real estate title insurance companies, was charged with defrauding clients of title companies he controlled of more than $1.7 million. According to the criminal complaint, Boxman stole money that was entrusted to those companies and used it to pay operating expenses associated with his failing businesses.

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• According to the complaint, Boxman controlled Titledge Insurance Company of New York, a real estate title insurance company licensed by the State of New York, and various other title abstract companies(1) and agents. [...] Through his companies and bank accounts, Boxman received fees for the recording of mortgages and deeds, which, in turn, he was supposed to remit to the county where the deed or mortgage was recorded.

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• However, instead of paying the fees to the counties, Boxman allegedly transferred the money to accounts he controlled and used it to pay his companies’ operating expenses and to cover thefts from prior victims of his scheme. The complaint charges that between January 2006 and December 2008, Boxman stole over $1.7 million in recording taxes, other fees, and monies held in escrow, and that as a result of his scheme several mortgages and deeds were never recorded.

For more, see Title Insurance Company Owner/Operator Charged In $1.7M Fraud Scheme.

Go here, Go here, Go here, Go here, and Go here for other stories of trust account / escrow account theft of funds.

(1) A title abstract company or agent performs title searches and other functions on behalf of a title insurance company, including issuing title insurance policies in the title insurance company's name, recording mortgages and deeds, and holding money in escrow. EscrowRipOffKappa