Boise broker quits role at NAR after purported blackmail threat
Boise area real estate broker Tracy Kasper’s time as president of the National Association of Realtors came to an abrupt end Monday.
Kasper said she quit the gig because someone had blackmailed her, and threatened to “disclose a past personal, non-financial matter unless she compromised her position at NAR.”
Kasper said in a statement that she refused to do that, and instead “reported the threat to law enforcement,” and stepped down, effective immediately.
“As president and a long-time member of NAR, I always have put the interests of NAR first,” Kasper said in a news release. “As a result of the recent threat and given the significance of this moment for myself, my family and the organization, it is again time for me to put the interests of NAR first. So, it is with a mix of gratitude and a heavy heart that I submit my resignation as your president effective immediately. In doing so, it gives our leadership team the ability to take the reins and forge forward in effecting the change that we all have worked so hard over the past few months to begin. I know I leave our members, our staff and our association in good hands.”
NAR president-elect Kevin Sears will step into Kasper’s role. The NAR represents more than 1.5 million real estate agents and brokers across the country in residential and commercial real estate.
Like Sears, Kasper jumped from president-elect to president of the organization early, in August, when then-president Kenny Parcell resigned abruptly after a New York Times story claimed he sexually harassed women he worked with.
In November, a federal jury found the NAR and some residential brokers conspired to artificially inflate commissions from home sales, and the NAR was ordered to pay $1.78 billion.
Kasper said at the time that the group would appeal the verdict and said the ruling was “just one chapter in a longer legal process.”
Kasper did not reply to BoiseDev’s request for additional comment Tuesday.
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