Two title crooks awaiting sentencing are seeking reduced sentences for their crimes, according to news reports this week. 

--Elizabeth Sichler stole more than $1.9 million from customers through her business, Priority Search of Kingston, PA, and pled guilty to wire fraud charges last September.  Sichler began stealing from her company's escrow accounts in 2005-- a time when Priority Search was still doing a strong level of business, handling several dozen closings a month.  The amount of transactions was sufficient for Sichler to skim off money from escrow accounts for her own personal use and pay off older obligations with money coming in from newer transactions. 

Then, after business fell off and the business' reliably constant positive escrow balance dried up due to lower transaction volume and Sichler's growing misappropriation, Sichler began to  fail to pay off mortgages-- 58 of them, by the time her business was shut down.

Sichler's misdeeds also included collecting and pocketing title insurance premiums from clients rather than obtaining title insurance policies, failing to record mortgage documents, and kiting checks on almost 200 occasions to cover shortfalls in Priority's escrow accounts.

But now, Sichler says she should get a lighter sentence than the 51 to 63 months that prosecutors are suggesting.  According to a court filing, Sichler has shown "extreme remorse" for her crimes, and had lived an exemplary life prior to her crimes, including many volunteer activities. Her arrest and conviction had taken "a tremendous emotional and physical toll" on her, and "personal shame and embarrassment have essentially destroyed her life," according to the filing.  Sichler was vice chair of the Luzerne County Republican Party at the time of her arrest and resigned her post soon thereafter.

--Brian Madden, former president of Liberty Title Agency, once a large regional title business based in Long Island New York, was paying himself a salary of up to $300,000 a month from Liberty and other title businesses under his control, even as his title businesses went south in 2008 and 2009.  Business revenues unfortunately did not support  the large cash draws he was taking.  Instead, Madden was diverting client escrow funds into regular business accounts, so that he could continue to draw a huge income from his business. 

To cover for this theft, Madden paid old obligations from escrow from incoming client funds for newer transactions.  As part of his crimes, Madden failed to record dozens of documents and failed to pay client's taxes, as he was entrusted to do as part of his duties.

Madden pled guilty to one count of wire fraud and one count of insurance fraud in December 2010.  But now, he is objecting to the level of punishment that prosecutors are seeking to impose on him.  He claims that the losses caused by his crimes fall in a range of between $1 million to $2.5 million, instead of up to $4.7 million as claimed by prosecutors, and that he is therefore entitled to a lesser sentence over 41 to 51 months rather than the 63 to 78 months recommended by prosecutors.