Republic Title Company Announces They Are a Victim of Million-Dollar Scam

Law Firm`s Former Paralegal Sued For Fraud Scheme
CHICAGO--(Business Wire)--
Chicago-based title insurance company, Republic Title Company, has filed a
lawsuit today in Cook County Circuit Court against a law firm, Picklin and Lake,
and the law firm`s former paralegal after discovering that the paralegal while
working for the law firm allegedly had committed a large scale fraud and stole
more than one million dollars from the company, its customers and the law firm`s
clients.

According to the lawsuit, this action arises out of a pattern of misconduct
committed by paralegal Catherine Weaver during her employment at Picklin and
Lake in connection with Republic`s real estate closings. She is accused of
utilizing the law firm`s attorney escrow account to defraud Republic Title
Company, its clients and the law firm`s clients. Picklin and Lake are also named
as defendants (as the law firm) as they are accused of failing to detect this
fraudulent conduct.

"This is a simple case of greed by the employee and negligence on the part of
the leadership at the law firm," said Mark D. Belongia of Belongia, Shapiro &
Hynes, LLP, one of the attorneys for Republic Title Company. "Republic Title
Company and their customers were completely deceived and have been taken
advantage of by someone who was in a position of trust."

Beginning in December of 2007, Weaver allegedly commenced a series of schemes to
transfer money from real estate closings held at Republic Title Company. She
accomplished this by demanding that Republic`s closing agents direct their
settlement payoffs from the bank to be paid off instead to the law firm`s escrow
account.

Shortly after, Weaver would then issue an escrow check to herself that was
reportedly signed by law firm partner Jeffery Picklin. Using a "branch jumping"
tactic, Weaver would then use several banks throughout the Chicagoland area to
cash these checks.

The criminal act was finally uncovered in January of 2009 when Weaver, on behalf
of the law firm, scheduled a real estate closing allegedly representing an
alleged seller of real property. During the closing process, Weaver had Republic
issue a check in the amount of $329,485.63 to the law firm`s escrow account.
According to the lawsuit, this was a "non-agency" file. Thus, no funds should
have been paid by Republic as part of the transaction. It was later discovered
that no closing ever actually took place.

In the lawsuit, Republic Title Company is seeking damages for all monies lost
and recovery for all persons wronged by the fraud.

About Republic Title Company:

Since 1984, Republic Title has been a premiere closing specialist in the
Midwest. Republic`s offices are conveniently located in Rolling Meadows, with
additional locations in Skokie, Oak Brook, Palos Heights, Libertyville, Crystal
Lake, Joliet, Waukegan and two Chicago offices. For more information visit
www.reptitle.com.

LimeGreen Entertainment Group
Suzanne Kostolansky
Phone: 312.330.2484
Email: suziek@limegreen.net

Copyright Business Wire 2009