Maryland Title Company President Pleads Guilty in Multi-Million Dollar Fraud

Anthony V. Weis, age 45, of Phoenix, Maryland, pled guilty this week to wire fraud in connection with a eight month long mortgage fraud binge which defrauded lenders of $3.7 million and which left homeowners facing surprise foreclosures due to defaults on loans they thought were paid off.

Weis was president and a part-owner of Maple Leaf Title in Towson, Maryland. In February 2009, Weis began directing employees to withhold mortgage payoff checks in various transactions. Then when the deals closed, Weis caused false settlement statements to be sent to the borrower's new lender which falsely represented that old loans were being paid off.
This was not the case. In at least 13 real estate closings conducted between February and September 2009, Weis failed to pay off mortgages and pocketed the proceeds of new loans instead. In total, prosecutors documented that Weis had helped himself to $3.4 million out of Maple Leaf Title's escrow accounts.