House Owners Cheated of $3.4 Billion in Foreclosure related Crisis

Suzanne Hall is one of the many facing a collapsing economy. She wanted to refinance her house located in Cockeysville. Wanting to opt out of her ARM loan she took a traditional fixed loan that would run for 30 years. Her banker was PNC Bank. The interest rate would fall to 5 1/8th% from 6.5%. It meant a savings of $150 each month.

PNC Bank gave Maple Leaf Title $379,258. The understanding was that it would clear the old loan of Hall through MetLife. But the dollars never arrived alleged the federal prosecutors; these were taken over by the title firm based on Towson.

Recently the office of Maryland attorney took up the matter of Anthony V. Weis. Weis was the head of Maple Leaf – the latter unit having shut down. 16 counts were brought against Weis for fraud (mail and wire). The amount stolen totaled to $3.4 million. Apart from Hall there were dozens of other victims.

When Hall was contacted over the phone she thought it was “awesome”. A person who had been a friend of Hall for the last three decades was one of the partners of Maple Leaf. This so-called friend navigated her to this firm. Today the friendship has snapped.

For the last six months Hall has been struggling to recover her damaged credit and negotiate with the bank to save her home from foreclosure. Hall said, “The one thing I really learned in all this is that the title company holds the reins on all your money. I realized in all this that my money was exposed by one man controlling the company.”

The licenses of over thirty six title cum settlement companies have been revoked by The Maryland Insurance Administration. Many have also been penalized since 2008. The number of companies had spiked from 90 entities in 2005 to 600 in 2009.

Last September the owner of one such firm in Severna Park was awarded seven years in jail for cheating house owners of $3.4 million. Last February another such owner in Parkville was arrested in Palm Beach after having been on the run for nearly one year. He was facing federal charges for having cheated lenders of nearly half a million.

Rod J. Rosenstein, the attorney of Maryland said, “In many embezzlement cases, the perpetrators start by stealing a small amount of money and then escalate to stealing larger and larger amounts. We recently have prosecuted several cases involving title company executives who steal from trust funds”.