A mother-daughter team will serve 90 days in jail for their guilty pleas to stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars in escrow funds from clients of their now-shuttered Cherry Creek title insurance companies.
The women — Elizabeth Newell-Williams, 66, and her daughter, Michelle Hernandez, 46 — will also serve 10 years of probation for their guilty pleas to a pair of felony theft charges.
They each pleaded guilty in January to a charge of stealing more than $100,000 but less than $1 million, and a charge of stealing more than $5,000 but less than $20,000, court records show. The other charges each faced were dismissed as part of a plea agreement.
They were sentenced on April 1 by Denver District Judge Edward Bronfin and were each assessed a $6,000 probation fee along with other costs totaling about $700, court records show.
The women were indicted last year by a state grand jury on several felony theft charges as well as racketeering and conspiracy, after investigators unraveled transactions between more than a dozen bank accounts the pair used to run Foresight Title and Williams Title and Escrow Company.
For months the two women maneuvered millions of dollars between various bank accounts in order to give the appearance that all was well. Title companies typically hold millions of dollars in escrow for real estate clients, money that is used to pay for final water and utility bills or other closing costs, including paying off mortgage balances.
The companies were underwritten by Alliant National Title Insurance Company in Texas and consumers impacted by the thefts were repaid.