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Ex-employee charged with embezzling $675,820

A former State Bar employee was arrested last month and charged with embezzling more than $675,000 from the bar to pay for “spa treatments, designer clothes, lavish meals and fancy hotel rooms.”

Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. filed seven criminal charges against Sharon Pearl, 51, including one count of embezzlement and six counts of filing false tax returns. Pearl was fired from her position as director of real property in October.

“The defendant embezzled hundreds of thousands of dollars from the State Bar of California over a period of eight years,” Brown said in a statement. “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.”

The bar purchased its headquarters building in 1999, inheriting tenants who leased retail and office space in the building. Pearl handled building management and was responsible for collecting rent. She covered her thefts by maintaining dual books and falsifying documents and reports to the Finance Office.

State Bar Deputy Executive Director Robert Hawley said Pearl was a trusted employee whose alleged crimes shocked her co-workers. “She presented herself as a staunch State Bar defender and advocate. It was a stunning and total betrayal,” he said.

According to prosecutors, as early as 2002, Pearl had set up an arrangement whereby tenants gave rent checks directly to her or delivered them to her attention at the bar’s front desk. Some checks were to be made payable to “PLOT — The State Bar of California.” PLOT stood for Piedmont Light Opera Theatre, a group Pearl served as treasurer.

She deposited some of the checks into accounts held by the theatre company, and as a signatory on those accounts, Pearl then transferred the money to her personal bank account.

Pearl’s scheme was uncovered last year when she submitted a check request for $10,800, claiming it was for a tenant’s security deposit refund. The check was issued, but a month later Pearl claimed it was lost and asked for another check. Because there were no records that the tenant had ever paid a security deposit, the bar launched an internal investigation into the financial discrepancies.

Pearl first claimed the bar had been “scammed,” but later changed her story to a claim of blackmail by the tenant.

The bar ultimately discovered Pearl kept two sets of books and is believed to have embezzled rent from at least nine tenants.

Pearl also falsified a lease, creating a version for her books that was different from the lease on file with the bar’s general counsel.

According to a declaration by an investigator for the attorney general, “it appears the total amount of theft is at least $675,820, but could be as high as $681,748.11.” She also owes back taxes to the state, for 1992-2007, of $110,190.

The bar has filed a claim under its theft loss insurance policy and has placed a lien’s on Pearl’s home, which is for sale. It also intends to seek restitution in criminal court.

Pearl did not enter a plea at her arraignment April 13; another appearance was scheduled April 28. If convicted, she faces up to nine years in state prison.

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