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“The defendant embezzled hundreds of thousands of dollars from the State Bar of California over a period of eight years,” Attorney General Brown said. “She was responsible for collecting rent for the State Bar, but instead used the money to pay for spa treatments, designer clothes, lavish meals, and fancy hotel rooms.”
On Monday, April 6, Attorney General Brown filed seven criminal charges in Alameda County Superior Court against Ms. Pearl, 51, of Oakland. The charges include:
One criminal count of embezzlement for violating section 504 of the state Penal Code.
Six counts of filing false tax returns for violating section 19706 of the state Revenue and Taxation Code.
The State Bar of California admits attorneys for practice in the state, provides continuing education classes, and conducts disciplinary hearings.
In 1999, the State Bar purchased an office building at 180 Howard St., San Francisco, for use as its headquarters. The State Bar inherited tenants who leased retail space within the building. As the director of real property, Pearl handled building management and was responsible for collecting tenant's rent.
As early as 2002, Pearl allegedly began to embezzle a portion of the rental funds she collected. Here's how the scheme worked:
Pearl allegedly directed some tenants to make their rent checks payable to "PLOT-The State Bar of California." Unknown to the renters, "PLOT" stood for the Piedmont Light Opera Theatre.
She allegedly deposited some of the checks into accounts held by the PLOT.
Pearl, who was a signatory on the theater's accounts, would then allegedly transfer funds from the theater accounts to her personal bank account.
She would then allegedly use the embezzled funds to pay for spa treatments, designer clothes, lavish meals and fancy hotel rooms.
Brown alleged that Pearl was able to continue the scheme for years because the State Bar did not keep track of the rent payments it was owed.
The State Bar finally uncovered Pearl's scheme in 2008 when she requested a check that she claimed was for a tenant's security deposit refund. Because there were no records that the tenant in question had ever paid a security deposit, the State Bar launched an internal investigation into the financial discrepancies.
The State Bar ultimately discovered that Pearl was maintaining two sets of books, and the investigation was referred to the Attorney General's Special Crimes Unit for prosecution.
Pearl has agreed to surrender herself to authorities next Monday. She could face up to nine years in state prison if convicted on all charges.
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SACRAMENTO – Thanks to swift action by the Governor’s Recovery Act Task Force and the state legislature, $415 million in federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (Recovery Act) stimulus funds are now available to assist unemployed Californians in job-training and in helping to find new jobs.
Following Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's request, the Joint Legislative Budget Committee moved to quickly allocate Recovery Act funds making them immediately available to unemployed Californians.
“With unemployment affecting historic numbers of Californians in this difficult economy, I am committed to doing everything within my power to provide relief to our unemployed and get Californians back to work,” said Schwarzenegger. “The legislature is a great partner in this and acted quickly to get this money out to the people, providing immediate assistance with job training and job placement. My administration will continue to work around the clock to push Recovery Act funding into our economy as quickly as possible to help create jobs and put California on the road to economic recovery.”
To assist workers displaced from their jobs, the Recovery Act funds will be distributed by the Employment Development Department to 49 local Workforce Investment Boards to help bolster services at the local Workforce Services Offices and One Stop Career Centers, serve workers displaced from their jobs and work to address workforce development priorities.
The $415 million nearly doubles the amount of Workforce Investment Act funds the federal government has allocated to California in the current fiscal year.
For more information on this allocation please visit www.labor.ca.gov and www.recovery.ca.gov.
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SACRAMENTO – California Department of Food and Agriculture Secretary A.G. Kawamura reminds California farmers who suffered agricultural losses in 2008 that the deadline for several disaster assistance programs has been extended to May 18.
“Farmers in California always seem to find a way to put food on the nation’s tables despite fires, floods, drought and other natural disasters,” said Kawamura. “Those farms and ranches hit hardest by Mother Nature in 2008 may be eligible for federal assistance, and the deadline to qualify has been extended to May 18.”
The Food, Conservation and Energy Act of 2008 authorized several disaster assistance programs including the Supplemental Revenue Assistance Program (SURE), the Emergency Assistance for Livestock, Honeybees, and Farm-Raised Fish (ELAP), and the Tree Assistance Program (TAP).
Producers who did not have crop insurance or Non-insured Crop Disaster Assistance Program (NAP) coverage for 2008 can pay a buy-in fee to become eligible for assistance – but they must do so by May 18.
Details about these programs and the application process are available online at www.fsa.usda.gov/ca.
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“When we first saw CalREDD we were all extremely impressed by the innovative, cutting-edge technology and what it has to offer our members and their clients,” said Anita McKee, Lake County Association of Realtors president.
“Our association prides itself on providing state of the art technology to our Realtor members,” said McKee. “After much consideration we feel that CalREDD, being a Realtor-owned product, provides our members a much more cost-effective service, as well as offering our Realtors and their clients access to statewide MLS exposure.”
McKee said agents from all over the state will have access to Lake County information and listings, which the local association believes will be a huge advantage to sellers and all buyers interested in Lake County property.
She said CalREDD is the wave of the future and LCAOR is delighted to be one of the first associations to offer to its Realtors the opportunity to be in the forefront of the real estate industry with this new MLS platform.
LCAOR expects to change over to CalREDD on Sept. 1. McKee said they will run parallel with their existing platform for a short period to allow LCAOR members and affiliates to become accustomed to the new system.
For more information contact LCAOR, telephone 707-263-9300 or visit them online at www.lcaor.com.