Underwriter Launches Inquiry Into Home Sales

By SHANNON BEHNKEN The Tampa Tribune

Published: Oct 26, 2006

TAMPA - The underwriter for a Tampa title company involved in inflated real estate transactions in Pinellas and Hillsborough counties says it is taking a closer look at those deals and the company that settled them.

Houston-based Stewart Title Guaranty Co. is the sole underwriter for Ocean Title & Abstract, which handled settlements for 36 transactions involving Tampa real estate agent Dawn L. Molen.

The 26-year-old agent's sales are the subject of investigations by the state attorney general's office and three other state agencies.

Molen's sales were revealed in a Tampa Tribune report Sunday that showed the properties sold for an average of $60,000 more than the original list price and had payments going to third parties associated with Molen.

On two of the transactions, separate settlement documents were handled by Ocean Title. The one filed with Molen's broker shows a large "payoff."

Documents sent to the lenders did not include that information.

An Ocean Title employee, Michelle Fabry, signed both sets of documents.

"Stewart will take appropriate action once its investigation is completed," Patrick Thesing, senior vice president, associate general counsel and chief litigation counsel, said in a statement.

More than a dozen lending institutions funded mortgages on the homes.

If the loans go into default, the lenders could be on the hook, and Stewart, as the underwriter for Ocean Title, could hold some liability.

Fabry and Molly Boston, the managing director for Ocean Title, could not be reached Wednesday at their office.

Reporter Shannon Behnken can be reached at (813) 259-7804. Keyword: Rapid, to read "A Rapid Rise," The Tampa Tribune's investigation into the real estate deals.