Defendant Falsified Documents, Altered Checks and Embezzled
more than $2 Million from Trust Account
The owner of a former real estate escrow firm was sentenced
today in U.S. District Court in Seattle to 24 months in prison for bank fraud,
announced U.S. Attorney Annette L. Hayes. LORI LYNN ANDREW, 49, of Cashmere,
Washington, the owner of Hartman Escrow, Inc., pleaded guilty to one count of
bank fraud. ANDREW stole more than $2.1
million through a variety of techniques, including making false entries in
escrow closing documents, altering accounting records, and depositing checks
into the general account instead of the trust account. At the sentencing hearing, U.S. District Judge
Richard A. Jones said, “Every single time you had an opportunity to change your
mind and say ‘this is wrong,’ you kept doing it.”
“This defendant chose to victimize people when they were
buying or selling a home–often the most important financial transaction of
their lives,” said U.S. Attorney Annette L. Hayes. “Like all real estate escrow agents, the
defendant was responsible for ensuring large amounts of money went where they
belonged. When she decided to line her
own pockets rather than do her job, she crossed the line and earned the prison
sentence that the court imposed today.”
According to records in the case, beginning in about January
2011, and continuing until July 2012, ANDREW used a variety of means to defraud
financial institutions and individual home buyers and sellers who were involved
in various real estate transactions.
ANDREW made, or had others make, false settlement statements on closing
transactions listing false or inflated fees and charges. ANDREW forged signatures on various
statements and created false invoices, statements, and bills; she altered and
deposited checks to her company account that should have gone to others; and
she took client funds from her trust account and transferred them to her
personal account for her own use. ANDREW
used the money for casino payments, credit card bills, and other personal
expenses. ANDREW defrauded individual
customers, as well as Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Citi Bank, Chase, and GMAC.
In all ANDREW defrauded the financial institutions and other
customers of $2.185 million. In July
2012, the Washington State Department of Financial Institutions arranged for a
receiver to take over the Tukwila, Washington, escrow company after finding
evidence of fraud. ANDREW had her
license to act as an escrow agent suspended in 2013, and her license has since
been revoked. The receiver was able to recover some funds for unsecured
claimants, but just over $1 million is still owed to defrauded clients.
The case was investigated by the Washington State Department
of Financial Institutions, the FBI, the Postal Inspection Service (USPIS), and
the Housing and Urban Development Office of Inspector General (HUD-OIG).
The case is being prosecuted by Special Assistant United
States Attorney Hugo Torres. Mr. Torres is a King County Senior Deputy Prosecutor
specially designated to prosecute financial fraud cases in federal court.
No comments:
Post a Comment