Lawyer pleads guilty to stealing escrow cash

Updated: February 9, 2010 - 11:23 PM

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A 38-year-old lawyer from Hudson, Wis., on Tuesday pleaded guilty in connection with a mortgage scheme in which he stole more than $3 million from a real estate title and escrow company he co-owned.

Jason Eric Fischer pleaded guilty in federal court to a count of mail fraud and a count of money laundering in connection with his scheme. In his plea agreement, Fischer admitted that from 2006 through May 2009, he diverted funds from the escrow account at Real Source Title. He stole from funds that were to be held in escrow for closing residential real estate sales.

To conceal the theft, Fischer made and mailed false Department of Housing and Urban Development settlement documents. All the while, he was withdrawing money from the escrow account to pay for personal expenses and other real estate transactions. In 2008, he invested $500,000 of escrow dollars into a restaurant.

Fischer will be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Patrick Schiltz at a later date.

JAMES WALSH