A title company escrow officer who faked a lienholder's email to divert $350,000
Mayela Saby Cantu, 55, a former escrow officer at Sierra Title in McAllen, Texas, was sentenced in the US District Court for the Southern District of Texas to 24 months in federal prison and ordered to pay $350,000 in restitution, after directing others to create a fake email address resembling a real lienholder's and using it to divert more than $350,000 the title company was due to pay out.
- Year
- 2025
- Where
- United States
- Outcome
- Sentenced
- Reported loss
- $350,000
- Victims
- Not stated in the sources
- Schemes
- Real estate closing wire fraud
- Last reviewed
- 2026-10-30
The facts, as recorded
- From November 2020 until her arrest in June 2024, Cantu used falsified lien payoff statements, fraudulent warranty deeds and deceptive emails to mislead lenders, title companies and property buyers, and arranged closings on properties that had already been sold while accepting undisclosed cash payments.
- In one scheme, she directed others to create a phony email address closely resembling that of a legitimate lienholder, then used it to send false payoff amounts by interstate wire, which led her own employer, Sierra Title, to improperly disburse more than $350,000.
- The investigation began after customers of the title firm suspected their title insurance transactions were being mismanaged, and was carried out by the FBI, the McAllen Police Department and the Texas Department of Insurance.
- Cantu pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud on December 20, 2024, facing up to 20 years in federal prison and a fine of up to $250,000 under the statute.
- Chief US District Judge Randy Crane sentenced her on April 30, 2025 to 24 months in federal prison, three years of supervised release, and $350,000 in restitution; she remained free on bond pending assignment to a federal facility.
- A victim spoke at the sentencing hearing about the personal and financial toll of the fraud and urged a sentence that would deter others in positions of trust.
- The Department of Justice said of the sentencing: "This sentence reflects the damage caused by those who abuse their trusted roles to commit financial fraud."
Why this case matters
The other two cases on this page describe an outside criminal network breaking into a trusted mailbox. This one shows the identical core deception, a fake lienholder email changing payoff instructions, run from the inside by someone the title company itself employed and trusted with exactly this kind of wire.
Who the victim was
Unlike a scheme that targets a homebuyer’s own down payment, this fraud targeted the title company’s payout to a lienholder: Sierra Title itself disbursed more than $350,000 based on the falsified payoff statement, making the company, not an individual buyer, the direct financial victim of this particular wire.
How it surfaced
The investigation did not begin with the fraudulent wire itself. It began when customers of the title firm separately suspected their own title insurance transactions were being mismanaged, a thread that led the FBI, the McAllen Police Department and the Texas Department of Insurance to the broader pattern of falsified lien payoffs, fraudulent warranty deeds and double-sold closings.
The caveat
Cantu pleaded guilty, and the facts above reflect her guilty plea and sentencing; nothing here is a contested allegation. News coverage identifies her employer as Sierra Title, but neither the Department of Justice’s own release nor the Texas Department of Insurance’s reproduction of it names the company directly, so that detail rests on the local news report cited above rather than the government source.
Sources
- Texas Title Company Employee Sent to Prison for Orchestrating $350,000 Real Estate Wire Fraud Scheme. Texas Department of Insurance. Accessed 2026-10-30. Supports: The defendant's role, sentence, restitution, scheme mechanism, the investigation's origin, and the investigating agencies.
- Former Texas title employee sentenced for $350K wire fraud scheme. HousingWire. Accessed 2026-10-30. Supports: The defendant's age, the sentencing date and judge, the period of conduct, the victim's statement at sentencing, and the Department of Justice's quote.
- Former McAllen Sierra Title employee pleads guilty in 'get rich quick' real estate scheme. KRGV (NBC affiliate, Rio Grande Valley, Texas). Accessed 2026-10-30. Supports: The employer's name (Sierra Title), the guilty plea date, the statutory maximum penalty, and the specific email accounts used in the fraudulent payoff scheme.