James Vassallo stole $ 43K from a hired couple to help them close in a Chesco house, says Da

A lawyer hired to help a couple from Chester County to close a house in Downingtown pocketed almost $ 43,000 who gave him to pay pending taxes at home and record the deed, the authorities said on Monday.

James Vassallo, from Voorhees, whose legal license was suspended in 2018, gave several excuses to the couple for delays in the production of adequate paperwork, according to the affidavit of probable cause of their arrest. At one point, prosecutors said, Vassallo presented a fraudulent insurance document before the mortgage lender of the victims, citing a policy that did not exist.

Vassallo, 55, has been accused of robbery, falsification and related crimes. It was released after publishing $ 50,000 without guarantee.

His lawyer, Arthur Donato, said Monday that he was reviewing the evidence of the case and said that “he would take the appropriate measures when the time comes.”

The couple told Chester County researchers who hired Vassallo in 2023, when they planned to move from Colorado to Pennsylvania, said the affidavit. They chose him as his real estate lawyer on the recommendation of a friend who was his relative. At that time, Vassallo owned a real estate settlement company in Radnor, according to the affidavit.

Months after the couple settled at their home in WalesS Ayres in Downingtown, they realized that they had never received the writing, and learned that the writing had not been registered with the county.

When they interrogated Vassallo about that, he blamed his receptionist and finally presented the deed and gave the county officials a check for the presentation rates of $ 15,000. But the check bounced because the bank account for Vassallo’s business only had $ 57, according to the affidavit.

The County Fact Registrar sent a letter to Vassallo, but did not respond, said the sworn statement, and the rate does not go back.

The researchers also discovered that after the couple bought the house in May 2023, Vassallo never sent a title test insurance to the county. A title insurance policy that Vassallo sent to the couple’s mortgage company was fraudulent, according to the document. And money that buyers had paid Vassallo to resolve the taxes owed by the previous owner, as well as other taxes, were not transmitted to the county, according to the affidavit.

While Chester County prosecutors tested the case in Downingtown, similar investigation was being carried out in Delaware County. There, the researchers found that Vassallo did not pay $ 9,300 in inheritance taxes related to a house that other customers had bought in Norwood in September 2023, according to judicial presentations.

Buyers had put that money in a guarantee deposit to pay taxes, but the investigators say that Vassallo never transferred the money to the county.

In that case, Vassallo was accused of robbery and related crimes in Delaware county. It is scheduled to appear in Delaware County for a preliminary hearing in that case on Wednesday.