U.S. Attorney announces sentencing in $1.2 million real estate trust fund fraud case

Date: July 29, 2024

Contact: [email protected]

ALBUQUERQUE - A former Roswell escrow company owner was sentenced to 46-months in prison for defrauding his clients of over $1.2 million.

According to court documents, Christopher Adam Jensen-Tanner purchased Roswell Escrow Services, Inc. in 2013 and began conducting business as a servicer of real estate contracts, holding significant sums of money in trust for clients.

In January 2017, Jensen-Tanner began illegally using customer funds to finance an extravagant lifestyle beyond his means. To conceal his actions, Jensen-Tanner commingled funds between corporate accounts, moving money held in trust to operating accounts and vice versa.

By fall 2019, the scheme unraveled when Jensen-Tanner could no longer hide the shortfall created by his misuse of client funds. A victim complaint led to an examination by the New Mexico Financial Institutions Division, exposing the full extent of the fraud.

A restitution hearing will be set at a later date. If you would like to attend the hearing, please contact Victim Specialist Jacquie Gutierrez at 575-522-2304 for more information.

IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS CI) and the Roswell Division and Las Cruces Resident Agency of the FBI investigated this case with assistance from the Securities and Financial Institutions Divisions of the New Mexico Regulation and Licensing Department. Assistant United States Attorneys Ry Ellison and Richard Williams are prosecuting the case.

CI is the criminal investigative arm of the IRS, responsible for conducting financial crime investigations, including tax fraud, narcotics trafficking, money-laundering, public corruption, healthcare fraud, identity theft and more. CI special agents are the only federal law enforcement agents with investigative jurisdiction over violations of the Internal Revenue Code, obtaining a more than a 90 percent federal conviction rate. The agency has 20 field offices located across the U.S. and 12 attaché posts abroad.