Maryland Title Co. Owner Gets 7 Years in Prison

U.S. District Judge Catherine C. Blake sentenced Deborah Williams, a title company owner from Pasadena, Md., to 84 months in prison for mail fraud and diverting settlement funds for her benefit. Williams was ordered to forfeit $3.4 million. Williams was the sole officer and director of Day Title, a title company with offices in Severna Park, Md., that conducted real estate closings and issued title insurance policies. According to Rod Rosenstein, U.S. attorney for the District of Maryland, Williams concealed her illegal transactions by falsely representing on settlement documents that her company had paid off lien holders and then sent the falsified settlement documents to the lender by commercial carrier. She initiated stop payments of payoff checks that had been disbursed or intentionally failed to mail the payoff checks to the lien holder.