Just a friendly suggestion to any crooked title agents who might be tempted to divert escrow funds into personal accounts:  avoid making your local county prosecutor one of your victims.

A Fort Wayne, Indiana title agent and mortgage broker faces a sentence of up to 12 years in prison after making that very mistake. 

Joseph A. Garretson, 36, former owner and operator of Fort Wayne Mortgage and Fort Wayne Title pled guilty yesterday to conversion or misappropriation of title insurance escrow funds, corrupt business influence and unlawful loan origination activities, all felonies, as part of a plea agreement to charges stemming from illegal activities undertaken by Garretson from 2006 to 2009.

In October 2009, an unidentified man call the office of Allen County Chief Deputy Prosecutor Michael McAlexander to report a possible crime.  The man's previous mortgage had not been paid off in a timely fashion, after a transaction in which the man had used the settlement services of Fort Wayne Title.  McAlexander realized he too had used Fort Wayne Title for his closing.  A call to his previous mortgage company confirmed the worst: his loan had not been paid off as well.

At first, Garretson claimed that McAlexander's loan had not been paid off due to an issue that had come to light after the closing.  But after a brief investigation revealed that Fort Wayne Title had failed to pay off more than a dozen other loans, the story fell apart and Garretson was arrested.   In total, Garretson allegedly misappropriated more than $2.7 million in escrow funds intended to pay off his customers' mortgages.

Garretson also was convicted of crimes related to his mortgage business-- Garretson illegally originated mortgages after his broker's license was suspended and then permanently revoked by the state of Indiana in 2009.