CLEARFIELD, Utah — The Utah Attorney General's office has filed criminal charges against what it calls a fraud involving a former title agent in Clearfield not forwarding money in real estate transactions and borrowing against a home he didn’t own.
Twenty-one charges were filed Thursday against Ryan Goodrich, the former operator of Synergy Title Insurance Agency until the Utah Department of Insurance suspended his license last year.
Goodrich was supposed to be forwarding client money to the mortgage holder, but Attorney General Sean Reyes says he wasn’t doing that.
One of the fraud charges also accuses Goodrich of forging the signatures of a couple in Morgan County, and then borrowing against their home. The McDermott family eventually got the liens off their title, but the new charges describe Goodrich causing another property to go into foreclosure.
Goodrich has previously denied doing any wrongdoing as either a title agent or a contractor.
The 21 counts are all felonies, with Goodrich, who was booked into the Davis County Jail Thursday, facing up to 30 years in prison if convicted. He has since gone into the construction contracting business, and, in separate cases, he is charged with crimes relating to that as well.
Calling Goodrich a flight risk, Reyes's office has asked for an arrest warrant and bail of $105,000.