I just had another thought or two about this. 

What if you did have a criminal history.  What if that history wasn't fraud but was say drug related crimes.  Non-violent crimes?  Felonies/misdemeanors?

 How about if the crimes happened 20 years ago. 

How about if you went to prison or did county jail time & having completed your sentence were out & free and looking to start again- as a freelancer since you didn't want to go through the misery of explaining your past to every Tom, Dick & Harry on the planet.

What would any of this have to do with the production of readable, presentable, accurate title reports (the answer as far as I am concerned is *nothing*). 

I've known fraudsters.  I've met attorneys - worked with them  actually- who ended up in prison for fraud & I would probably not want to entrust them with a whole lot of closings, if I did closings; but title abstracting is a different thing altogether. 

This still doesn't pass the smell test for me