Jail time ordered in escrow scam

PROVO — The victims of a former American Fork loan officer groaned, then laughed sarcastically as the man's attorney told a judge that the man had "no intention to defraud" anyone.

Attorney Larry Keller described Dan Starr as "a very spiritual man," pointing to Starr's active church membership and service and the fact Starr is the father of five children, as he pleaded with a 4th District Court judge to spare Starr from serving time behind bars.

Deputy Utah County Attorney David Wayment countered by noting Starr's actions, which resulted in several people losing their homes, showed less than upstanding citizenship.

For the two class-A misdemeanors, Judge Anthony Schofield sentenced Starr to serve 180 days in the Utah County Jail, with special release to work 60 hours a week, on the two class-A misdemeanor charges stemming from a plea agreement. Charges were reduced from felonies in return for Starr's testimony against the alleged leader of the Ponzi scheme that bilked Wasatch Front homeowners out of nearly $3 million.

Crying in open court, Starr promised that such activity will never happen again. "It's brought two years of hell in my life and others'," Starr said.

Schofield ordered Starr to take no employment in which he would hold a fiduciary role or in which he would have access to other people's money.

The charges against Starr stem from his role as a recruiter for investment mogul Calvin Paul Stewart in what has become known as the Attorney's Title scandal. Officials with the Utah Attorney General's Office estimate that across the Wasatch Front, dozens of homeowners lost their homes and millions of dollars in the scam that used escrow accounts at Attorney's Title in Salt Lake City.

While Keller tried to paint Starr as a victim of the lies told to him by Stewart, those attending the sentencing hearing said they strongly question that assertion.

LeeAnn Bailey, who lost $200,000 in home equity, said Starr lied to her and others until legal pressure was brought to bear on him.

"He's never compromised his position until the last hour, always waiting for a better deal," Bailey said.

And a deal was offered. Charges of two third-degree felony counts of sale of unregistered securities and acting as an unregistered securities agent were reduced to two class-A misdemeanors as part of a plea bargain with prosecutors. In exchange, Starr testified against Stewart during a June trial.