The chairman of America’s largest trade association is stepping down after allegedly receiving extortion threats.
The National Association of Realtors announced on Monday that President Tracy Kasper was stepping down after being threatened with exposing “past personal non-financial matters” if she did not step down. Kasper reported the threats to police but ultimately decided it was “in the best interest of the association” to step down, according to the association.
“As a result of the recent threats, and given what this moment means for myself, my family and the organization, it is time for me to once again put NAR’s interests first,” Kasper said in a statement. “Therefore, it is with a mixture of gratitude and heavy hearts that I am stepping down as chairman, effective immediately.”
Kasper, a real estate agent from Nampa, Idaho, with more than 30 years of experience, has served on the NAR Board of Directors since 2016, the same year he was named Realtor of the Year.
NAR said it was “deeply concerned” by any attempts to undermine its business and vowed to take steps to protect the integrity of the association. It also announced that incoming president Kevin Sears would take over from Kasper immediately, overseeing the association’s more than 1.5 million members in the residential and commercial real estate industry.
But this isn’t the first time NAR has faced a leadership change in recent months. Last November, the group lost its CEO, Bob Goldberg, after a jury found NAR and two other real estate franchises liable for conspiring to artificially inflate real estate commissions. The companies were ordered to pay $1.8 billion in damages to more than 260,000 home sellers in Missouri, Kansas and Illinois.
The lawsuit is just one of several class action lawsuits against the real estate company and could spur more in other states, and the ruling also gives the court the power to award additional damages, potentially raising the penalties to as much as $5 billion.
