The president and part owner of a Maryland title agency has been sentenced to 78 months in prison and ordered him to pay over $4 million in restitution to his victims for pocketing money that was supposed to pay off customers' mortgages.

Anthony V. Weis, age 45, of Phoenix, Maryland, defrauded lenders of approximately $3.9 million in just eight months. He was indicted on 16 counts of wire fraud and mail fraud last year, and pled guilty to to charges in November.

Weis was the president and a shareholder of Maple Leaf Title in Towson, Maryland. Weis directed Maple Leaf Title employees to withhold payoff checks in 13 closings conducted between February and September 2009.  In each instance, the settlement statement sent to the borrower’s lender falsely represented that the payoff was being made.

In an effort to conceal the fraud scheme, Weis made payments on the mortgages that he had failed to pay off.  Believing that the bank had been paid off as a result of the settlement, the borrower stopped making monthly payments on that mortgage. And since that lender was receiving monthly payments, it had no reason to notify the borrower of any delinquency.

However, Weis slipped up in some instances and failed to unable to make payments on some of the loans.  Several former Maple Leaf Title customers received delinquency notices on loans that they had believed were paid off at their recent closing, alerting them that there was a problem.  Victims then found out that they still had unpaid balances on the old mortgages and their credit was taking a beating.  A few were threatened with foreclosure and were forced to hire attorneys to prevent being ejected from their homes. 

Weis’s underwriter ultimately paid out $3.9 million to reimburse financial institutions for damages due to title issues related to Weis' crimes.

Weis was ordered to report on May 17, 2011, to the prison which will be designated by the U.S. Bureau of Prisons.