Maximum Term Handed Down in Title Insurance Fraud Case

A Santa Barbara businessman was ordered Monday to pay $4 million and spend more than five years in jail for siphoning funds from two title insurance companies he managed that later failed.

Devin Charles Park, 36, had pleaded guilty in January to federal charges of mail fraud, theft of government property and making a false statement to a financial institution. U.S. District Judge David Kenyon imposed the maximum sentence allowed under federal guidelines, 63 months.

Trico Title Co. and Homestead Title Corp. were taken under conservancy of the state Insurance Department last summer after investigators found they were operating with funds below the minimum legal requirements.

Park was charged with using his position as president of Trico from 1991 to 1994 to switch funds illegally between the companies and to take escrow funds--customers’ money held as collateral in special bank accounts--for his own use, including purchases of country club memberships, stocks, bonds and stereo equipment.

He was also charged with forging signatures on documents certifying the companies’ financial condition.

“This scheme took advantage of hundreds of people who entrusted their hard-earned escrow funds to Trico and Homestead, only to discover later that the money had disappeared,” state Insurance Commissioner Chuck Quackenbush said in announcing the sentence.

Trico had offices in Santa Barbara, Solvang, Lompoc and Santa Maria. Homestead, managed by Trico, had offices in Atascadero, Paso Robles, San Luis Obispo, Arroyo Grande and Cambria.