TRENTON – Attorney
General Paula T. Dow and Criminal Justice
Director Stephen J. Taylor announced that
the owner of a title company in Red Bank
was sentenced to prison today for stealing
$3.8 million in loan proceeds intended for
payment of mortgage balances and other closing
costs.
According to Director Taylor,
Ronald P. Mas Jr., 35, of Red Bank, a mortgage
broker, settlement agent and owner of Olde
Gotham Title and Settlement Services LLC
in Red Bank, was sentenced to 12 years in
state prison by Superior Court Judge Thomas
V. Manahan in Morris County. He executed
a consent judgment to pay full restitution
of $3,841,616 to the title company that
insured the mortgages. Deputy Attorney General
Francine Ehrenberg prosecuted the case for
the Division of Criminal Justice Major Crimes
Bureau.
Mas pleaded guilty on Aug.
26, 2010 to an accusation charging him with
second-degree money laundering and second-degree
theft by failure to make required disposition
of property received. He admitted that between
April 2009 and February 2010, he stole $3,841,616
that he received from various mortgage lenders
for real estate closings on behalf of 11
home buyers across New Jersey.
“Home buyers, lenders
and title insurers must be able to rely
on title agents, who are routinely entrusted
with hundreds of thousands of dollars in
closing funds,” said Attorney General
Dow. “When such agents violate their
fiduciary duty and steal from clients, as
this defendant did, they should face a stiff
sentence.”
“We have made prosecuting
major financial crimes a top priority, as
this lengthy prison sentence illustrates,”
said Director Taylor. “We are working
to deter white collar crime, whether it
takes the form of mortgage fraud, investment
fraud, misappropriation or other illegal
schemes.”
The state investigation
revealed that Mas diverted loan proceeds
into his Ameritrade account. Instead of
paying off the client’s old mortgage,
Mas would make monthly mortgage payments
and invest the balance of the loan proceeds
into the Ameritrade account. Mas made monthly
payments on some mortgages using funds from
new loans provided for clients. At the end
of February 2010, Mas had a total loss of
over $3.4 million in his Ameritrade account.
As a result, 11 mortgages were not paid.
The
investigation was conducted by Detective
Martin Farrell and Deputy Attorney General
Ehrenberg, under the supervision of Bureau
Chief Terrence Hull. They were assisted
by Deputy Attorney General Michael Rappa.
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