A former lawyer convicted of selling bogus insurance policies to 69 homeowners has failed to argue her way out of federal prison.
Instead, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rdCircuit has upheld Susan C. Kevra-Shiner's mail fraud convictions and 2-year prison term.
That decision, contained in an opinion by Judge Thomas L. Ambro, comes a year and a half after the 49-year-old Clarks Summit woman was convicted by a U.S. Middle District Court jury.
Investigators said Kevra-Shiner, who owned GK Abstract Inc. of Avoca, sold the victims title insurance policies from Stewart Title Guarantee Co. even though the firm had terminated her as an agent. She committed the fraud from November 2008 to December 2009, collecting nearly $68,000 from the victims.
Ambro noted that during her 2016 trial Kevra-Shiner insisted it was all a mistake, and that she incorrectly believed she was still authorized to sell the policies.
The evidence presented against her included the agreement terminating her as a Stewart agent, Kevra-Shirer's failure to remit any money from the policy sales to Stewart, and her own testimony in a civil case that she knew she wasn't authorized to sell the policies, Ambro wrote.
He rejected her contention that District Judge Malachy E. Mannion shouldn't have ordered her to pay nearly $68,000 in restitution when he sentenced her in July 2017. Kevra-Shiner contended that none of the victims suffered any financial loss.
"This argument is unsupported by either the record or common sense," Ambro wrote. "Kevra-Shiner's victims paid for valid, effective title insurance and did not receive it."
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