The former executive officer of California’s Tuolumne County Association of Realtors (TCAR) was arrested and charged with 45 counts of embezzlement.
The Tuolumne County Sheriff’s Office arrested Shauna Marie Love at her home in Sonora on Nov. 25. The arrest followed a complaint filed against Love by the Tuolumne County District Attorney’s Office.
According to the complaint, the alleged embezzlement occurred from 2019 to 2024 when Love was the TCAR executive officer. The suspected embezzlement was first reported to law enforcement in June 2024 and the District Attorney’s Office became aware of the report in December 2024 and was still receiving further evidence and information as recently as October.
In a statement, the District Attorney’s Office said Love’s arrest followed a “review of thousands of pages of financial documents. The criminal complaint which includes an allegation pursuant to Penal Code section 186.11(a) which alleges that the embezzlement scheme resulted in the taking of over $100,000.
Photo: Shauna Marie Love being arrested; courtesy of the Tuolumne County Sheriff’s Office
Wondering if NAR or the State Association had complaints about this, ahead of the Law Enforcement Investigation? And if yes…. was anything done about it?
Considering that a similar situation has occurred in Florida, might this be a targeted industry organization that needs to be monitored more closely with stricter guidelines? Where else could this be happening in our country? How embarrassing for our industry!
Its sad really, a large number of appraisers don’t realize they are realtors. They just think the money they are paying to their realtor association is for mls access is a fee, not dues for membership in the organization. As for safe-guards for the funds in the association operation, the 1st line realtors (brokers or appraisers) aren’t usually privy to info on any checks or balances in the organizations systems. I know how things like this should work, but have never been offered an overview of who checks on who or if there even is such a system in my local. Perhaps with this article, NAR will review groups at least annually to see if the guidelines they have published (I am assuming they have written accounting procedures internally.) are being followed. I do hope to see NAR address this embezzlement arrest and shine some light on the organizations processes.