More developments in the strange case of Millennium Title, a Southlake-based title company with offices in Plano, Frisco, Addison, and Dallas.
Scott Gordon over at KXAS has been all over this story. In fact, he has even heard from the title company owner, Nancy Jackson Carroll.
Last week the company was taken over by the Texas Department of Insurance, which heavily regulates title companies in Texas, after they were told the owner had disappeared. Title companies hold deposits in escrow for real estate consumers — earnest money, down payments, proceeds from property sales.
On Tuesday, a judge temporarily froze all the firm’s bank accounts linked to Carroll, the former owner who has reportedly disappeared. Carroll has not appeared at the Southlake office since Jan. 12, and has not answered emails or phone calls since Jan. 19, according to reports.
Gordon says regulators now say it looks like $3 million is missing.
Travis County District Judge Tim Sulak ordered the accounts frozen after state regulators claimed Carroll and others improperly transferred money from the title company’s escrow account to separate accounts that they controlled, according to court documents.
“It is estimated that a total of $2,875,338 is missing from the title company escrow accounts,” an attorney for the state wrote. “It is feared that the missing money could be moved before it is frozen.”
Also on Tuesday, Gordon said he heard from the missing former owner, Carroll, via email. She wrote that Millennium’s managers had voluntarily asked the state to take over the company. She also denied any wrongdoing.
“I deny all the allegations directed to me in your story,” she wrote. “I have no further comment.”
She did not tell Gordon where she was and declined an interview. I’ve talked with a few agents today who had closings with Millennium and are in the process of finding new title companies. At least one investor who claims he lost $1 million has offered a $50,000 reward to find Carroll.
Word on the street is that money is missing from 1031 Tax Deferred Exchanges, mortgages at closing, and earnest money deposits. Employees at the firm may also not have been paid, but that has not yet been confirmed.
Carroll is a member of the Texas State Bar, licensed since 1998. She has one disciplinary procedure against her in 2012. She received her J.D. from Texas Wesleyan University in 1997 and a Master of Law in 2000 from SMU’s Dedman School of Law. Sources tell me her husband, Kenneth Spinks, owns several businesses including a Colleyville based moving company, Dynasty Movers LLC.
