National Association of Realtors President Tracy Kasper has resigned after receiving a blackmail threat, the trade group said Monday.
The NAR announced in a press release that Kasper notified its leadership team "that she recently received a threat to disclose a past personal, non-financial matter unless she compromised her position at NAR."
The NAR said Kasper reported the threat to law enforcement and that she "felt that, in the circumstances, it was best for the organization that she step down." Neither the NAR nor Kasper revealed the nature of the "personal matter" that prompted the purported threat.
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"As president and a long-time member of NAR, I always have put the interests of NAR first," Kasper said in a statement. "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."
According to her biography on the NAR website, Kasper and her husband have seven grown children and six grandchildren. She is the broker-owner of three real estate companies in Idaho and has served on the NAR board of directors since 2016.
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Kevin Sears, a relator from Springfield, Massachusetts, will succeed Kasper as NAR president.
Kasper's abrupt departure is the latest in a series of upheavals at NAR in recent months. She had just taken the helm as president in August after her predecessor resigned following sexual harassment allegations, and former CEO Bob Goldberg stepped down earlier than his planned retirement date after the NAR lost a court case that found the trade group and several brokerages liable for $1.78 billion in damages.
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The NAR is one of the largest trade groups in the U.S., representing more than 1.5 million real estate agents.
