Maasen gets 18-month sentence for fraud

Prison will be a different lifestyle for ex-prosecutor

High-profile lawyer Scott Maasen tooled around in a Maserati when he wasn’t buying million-dollar homes, leasing a beachfront condo or swearing to a federal judge he couldn’t pay his bills, authorities said.

But it was a $90,000 engagement ring that will land Maasen in a federal prison for 18 months beginning in January.

The former Maricopa County prosecutor, who transformed himself into a Scottsdale-based criminal-defense attorney and DUI specialist, was sentenced in federal court Tuesday for concealing the ring when he filed for bankruptcy in 2009.

That was 18 months more than Maasen said he deserved when he petitioned the judge for probation and no jail time last week.

“The facts surrounding this case are but a small blip on the radar of Scott Maasen’s life,” Maasen’s lawyer wrote in a motion that stressed his public service, his devotion to his daughters and even cribbed a line from Spider-Man comics.

“He (Maasen) knew that with great power comes even greater responsibility, and his prosecutorial reputation was one of honesty and fairness,” his lawyer wrote. “It cannot be overlooked that Mr. Maasen spent years helping hundreds and possibly even thousands of clients who were often experiencing the very worst stretch of their lives.”

Judge David Campbell instead gave Maasen about two months before he

must surrender himself to the Bureau of Prisons on Jan. 11. The judge also sentenced Maasen to three years’ probation upon his release.

Maasen, who admitted to concealing the ring as part of a plea deal in April, faced up to five years in prison. Neither Maasen nor his attorney could be reached for comment Wednesday.

Maasen, his father and his girlfriend were indicted last year on multiple charges, including conspiracy and concealment. They were accused of disguising assets and of lying to the court about who owned them.

Investigators with the Internal Revenue Service outlined a series of complex financial transactions they say Maasen orchestrated with his father, David Maasen, and his girlfriend, Heather Holm, to shield purchases from the court and creditors.

Days before filing for bankruptcy in 2009, Maasen arranged to buy a $1.1 million home on Camelback Mountain, which he put in his father’s name, according to the indictment. Authorities also said Maasen:

❚ Falsely told creditors meeting about his bankruptcy that he had no interest in any property other than a piece of vacant land.

❚ Negotiated a $450,000 settlement on a $1.5 million Small Business Administration loan in 2012 that he had used to purchase a Scottsdale condominium for his law firm.

❚ Applied for a $725,000 mortgage loan with Holm for a $1.2 million home in Scottsdale’s Silverleaf community at the same time he claimed he couldn’t repay the SBA loan.

❚ Transferred the Silverleaf house into his father’s name, then helped Holm and his father on a $1.8 million refinancing loan for the home by serving as their attorney.

❚ Used funds from his law firm to lease a Maserati Quattroporte in David Maasen’s name.

❚ Used his law firm’s business account and Holm’s checking account to make $25,000 in lease payments on a beachfront condo in La Jolla, California, without disclosing it to the court.

❚ Concealed his ownership interest in an investment group.

❚ Hid hundreds of thousands of dollars he received while acting as a broker on a property sale.

Maasen was initially charged with 12 counts ranging from making false statements to the SBA and concealment of assets in a bankruptcy to fraudulent transfer of property and conspiracy.

In exchange for Maasen’s guilty plea, federal authorities agreed to drop charges against his father and girlfriend. Maasen also has to repay $1.4 million to the SBA.

Maasen admitted using his father to purchase a $90,000 engagement ring for Holm in 2012 from a California jeweler. In court filings last week, Holm was described as Maasen’s former fiancée.

“This was done so it looked like my dad was the owner of the engagement ring, which he was not,” Maasen said in his plea agreement. “Shortly thereafter, I proposed to my fiancée with the engagement ring.”

He and Holm later insured the ring on their homeowner’s policy.

Maasen’s lawyers said in last week’s motion that he was motivated by love and beseeched the court to consider the ring and not the related allegations, which remain unproven.

“Make no mistake, while in bankruptcy, Mr. Maasen devised a way to propose to the woman he loved with a magnificent ring that was not reported in his bankruptcy proceedings,” the lawyer wrote. “He does not minimize that conduct or seek to avoid criminal responsibility for it. He simply asks this Court to focus on what is known beyond a reasonable doubt.”

An Arizona Supreme Court judge overseeing discipline of lawyers suspended Maasen last month from practicing law.

The judge, citing past disciplines and Maasen’s guilty plea in the bankruptcy case, suspended Maasen for six months and a day. The extra day means Maasen will have to reapply for his law license and show that he has been rehabilitated if he wants to go back to being a lawyer.

Maasen graduated from ASU in 1993 with a bachelor’s degree in political science and served as student-body president in 1992-93. He received his law degree from California Western School of Law in San Diego.

The State Bar of Arizona shows Maasen has been disciplined in multiple cases. He has received admonitions, a reprimand and has been placed on probation three times.

A 2016 case involved a mentally disabled minor accused of sex crimes, who “contacted several 13-15-year-old girls on Facebook and engaged in explicit sex talk with them,” according to state Bar records. Maasen allowed his client to plead guilty and avoid jail time without taking any steps to determine if his client was mentally competent.

A judge later threw out the guilty plea and the conviction.