A former notary public accused of illegally notarizing dozens of documents in the Zintron home-improvement and financing scheme has agreed to settle his role in the case.

Todd Verk of Sharon could end up paying as little as $6,440 - a fraction of the potential losses to customers and lenders that did business with Zintron - in the settlement agreement with the office of state Attorney General Jerry Pappert.

Commonwealth Court must approve the settlement before it becomes final, Pappert's office said Monday.

Pappert accused Verk in January of violating the state Consumer Protection Law, the Notary Public Law and the Uniform Acknowledgement Act for notarizing mortgage documents for Zintron prior to April 2000 without customers being present.

"This opens up the avenue to all types of fraud and abuse," Pappert said at the time.

The settlement amount is small because the law allowed a maximum penalty against Verk of only $100 per affected household, Pappert's office said. To date, investigators have identified 34 households that qualify for compensation.

"We sought the maximum under the law," said Barbara Petito, a spokeswoman for Pappert.

Upon court approval, the settlement puts each household in line to receive $100, meaning that $3,400 of the $6,440 settlement amount will go to customers. The balance - $3,040 - will go to the state to cover a civil penalty against Verk ($2,000), the state's investigative costs ($1,000) and a filing fee ($40).

Verk, 40, also is obligated for 60 days from the date the court approves the agreement to pay $100 to each additional consumer who files a complaint with the state about his notary practices in deals Zintron arranged.

"We could only go after Verk for what he was doing as a notary," said Petito. "We could not say he was responsible for what happened later."

What happened later, according to investigators, was that Zintron used the illegally notarized documents and other deceptions to trick customers and lenders into agreeing to bad home-improvement and debt-consolidation deals.

Petito said the state's civil case against Zintron and its principals, William T. McKee and Terry Boring, is continuing in Commonwealth Court. That case was opened in June 2001.

Meanwhile, McKee and Boring are scheduled to be sentenced Thursday in Pittsburgh on federal criminal charges in the scam.

Petito said the state hoped Verk's experience would send a message to notaries that "the attorney general's office will prosecute notaries for engaging in fraudulent and deceptive acts.

"Notaries should be a little more conscious of documents they notarize," she said. "There should be a little more awareness as to what, in fact, is being notarized."

As part of the settlement, Verk agreed never again to perform notary services in Pennsylvania. He also agreed not to advertise, offer, sell, procure, arrange or participate

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