National Association of Realtors rocked after blackmail threat prompts president to resign
The National Association of Realtors is grappling with more turmoil in its top leadership ranks just over two months after the trade group’s CEO stepped down well before his planned retirement.
The Chicago-based organization said Monday that NAR president Tracy Kasper has resigned, effective immediately, and is being succeeded by the trade group’s president-elect, Kevin Sears.
In a statement, the NAR said Kasper recently received a “threat to disclose a past personal, non-financial matter unless she compromised her position at NAR.”
Kasper refused to comply and reported the threat to law enforcement, the NAR said. The trade group did not disclose who threatened Kasper or what specific action they wanted her to take that would have compromised her role at the organization, which touts more than 1.5 million members.
“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,” Kasper said in a statement.
NAR said its leadership team is “deeply concerned about any attempt to undermine its governance,” adding that it is taking steps to “protect the integrity” of the organization.
Kasper’s sudden departure is the latest in a recent string of executive changes at the NAR.
In early November, former NAR CEO Bob Goldberg announced he would be stepping down nearly two months before his planned retirement. That announcement came the same week that the trade group was dealt a punishing blow in federal court after a jury in Kansas City, Mo., found that NAR and some of the nation’s biggest real estate brokerages artificially inflated commissions paid to real estate agents.
Facing potentially billions in damages, the NAR has said it is appealing the verdict.
NAR tapped Nykia Wright, former CEO of the Chicago Sun-Times, to take over as interim CEO in November.
In August, former NAR President Kenny Parcell resigned following a report in The New York Times that detailed sexual harassment allegations against the Utah broker by employees and members of the NAR.
Kasper, then NAR’s president-elect, took over immediately after Parcell’s exit.
