Old Republic Must Pay $17 Million to Customers

Old Republic Title Co., which unlawfully kept millions of dollars in interest-earning escrow accounts from home buyers, must pay consumers $17 million, a San Francisco County judge ruled.

The decree stems from a class-action suit accusing the Chicago-based title company of siphoning off interest in escrow accounts instead of giving it to the escrow account owners. Since 1994, regulators estimated the company illegally made as much as $30 million under the practice by taking the $50 or so individual accounts earned in interest.

Regulators said as many as 300,000 people may be due refunds.

Prosecutors declined to prosecute top executives in exchange for their testimony.