My mortgage lender added an escrow account for taxes and insurance to my mortgage for $7000/yr actual costs. They added $1495 a month for escrow which comes out to over $17,000/yr. Is it legal to make $10,000 for a $7000 escrow. What recourse do I have for this loan sharking? What control do I have over escrow? Can I pull out my tax & insurance from lender?

Call them and ask why the escrow amount is so large. They should have provided you with an analysis of the account which shows how the payment amount is derived. It may be that they are asking you to make a larger than normal initial payment in order to fund the account, but that would be a one-time thing.

Whether your lender alows you to make your own tax and/or insurance payments is between you and the lender, but most do require that the real estate taxes at least be paid through the escrow (the last thing they want is to lose the house in foreclosure because you forgot to pay the taxes).

By the way, if your escrow account is indeed over-funded the bank doesn't get the money, so rest assured that the money is still yours. They aren't going to "make" $10K on this.