White Collar Crime News

Annapolis Mortgage Broker Charged in Fraud Scheme February 2, 2010

Mortgage broker David Wehrs, Sr. of Annapolis, Maryland, has been charged with wire fraud in connection with a scheme to defraud investors and financial institutions of approximately $2.3 million.  According to the information and court documents, Wehrs owned Maryland Title and Escrow Company, Inc., located in Annapolis, and operated a small home remodeling company called Show-Me. From 2007 to October 2009, Wehrs allegedly induced individuals to invest money through Maryland Title into a purported FDIC-insured money market fund that Wehrs “guaranteed” would pay monthly interest payments of 10.85 percent. Instead of depositing the money into an “American Funds Fixed Rate Money Market” as promised, Wehrs allegedly deposited investor funds into one of two bank accounts he controlled in the name of his title company. Wehrs then wire transferred a large portion of these investor funds to a brokerage account in the name of his title company at Terra Nova Financial LLC located in Chicago, Illinois.

The Government also alleges that Wehrs then used the money he obtained to “day trade.” During the scheme, Wehrs is alleged to have conducted millions of dollars of stock trades per month.  In addition to day trading, Wehrs allegedly used some of the investor funds to: pay “monthly interest” and “redemptions” to other investors; pay expenses of his other businesses, including Show-Me; make escrow payments for his title company; buy real estate and personal property; and pay other personal expenses.

The Government further alleges that when Wehrs had no money left in his personal bank accounts or day trading accounts to pay interest due to investors, he used $630,611 earmarked to pay lending institutions for mortgage payoffs from his escrow account at Maryland Title to pay investors, causing a loss of such amount to a title insurance company. He also allegedly used $100,000 from the Maryland Title escrow account that was earmarked as earnest money for the purchase of an individual’s home to pay interest to investors, causing a loss of $100,000 to the home buyer.

As a result of the scheme, Wehrs is alleged to have caused a total loss of $2,371,06 to investors and the title insurance company. The worst part for Wehrs is that it seems like he doesn’t have a ton of money to pay back to make this go away.